BER  SEVENTH 
DCCCCVIII 


tfCSB  LIBRARY 


WILLIAMS   COLLEGE 

THE  INDUCTION  OF 

HARRY   AUGUSTUS   GARFIELD,    LL.D. 

INTO  THE  OFFICE  OF 

PRESIDENT 

OCTOBER  SEVENTH 

MDCCCCVIII 

Y\6ii 


EAGLE    PRINT 

PITTSFIELD,     MASSACHUSETTS 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

N  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  June,  1907,  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Trustees,  held  in  Williams- 
town,  Harry  Augustus  Garfield,  then  Pro- 
fessor of  Politics  in  Princeton  University 
was  unanimously  elected  President  of  Williams 
College.  He  accepted  the  election,  and  a  committee, 
consisting  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Merriman,  Chairman,  Mr. 
Delano,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dewey,  President  Lefavour,  Pro- 
fessor Perry,  Mr.  Stetson,  and  Mr.  Warren,  was  appointed 
to  make  suitable  arrangements  for  his  induction  into 
office.  Later,  it  was  announced  that  the  induction  would 
take  place  October  the  seventh,  1908 — a  date  whch  fell 
on  the  one  hundred  and  fifteenth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  the  College.  To  the  Rev.  Dr.  Merriman  and  Presi- 
dent Lefavour,  as  a  sub-committee,  was  assigned  the 
laborious  task  of  preparation.  Under  their  supervision 
an  engraved  invitation,  bearing  the  seal  of  the  College, 
was  prepared  and  sent  to  the  Governor  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts  and  to  Ambassador  Bryce;  to 
Presidents  and  Professors  of  Universities,  Colleges,  and 
Theological  Seminaries;  to  teachers  in  Academies  and 
High  Schools;  and  to  representative  citizens  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  other  states.  Two  other  circulars  were 
issued  by  direction  of  the  committee,  one  of  which  was 
addressed  to  the  guests  and  delegates  from  academic 
institutions,  and  the  other  to  the  Alumni.  Of  the  latter 
twenty-five  hundred  were  sent  out.  These  circulars 
contained  all  necessary  information  in  regard  to  the  de- 
tails of  the  induction.  The  sub-committee  also  provided 
a  handsomely  printed  program  of  the  exercises.  Two 
local  committees  were  appointed — a  Committee  on  Arrange- 
ments, consisting  of  Bentley  W.  Warren,  Willard  E.  Hoyt, 
and  Dean  Frederick  C.  Ferry,  and  a  Committee  on  Enter- 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

tainment,  consisting  of  Bentley  W.  Warren,  Willard  E. 
Hoyt,  Dean  Frederick  C.  Ferry,  Rev.  Charles  H.  Burr, 
and  N.  Henry  Sabin.  All  these  committees  discharged 
their  duties  with  notable  success. 

The  following  gentlemen  served  as  marshals  and  had 
charge  of  the  formation  and  conduct  of  the  procession 
and  of  the  seating  of  guests  in  the  Chapel  and  in  the  Con- 
gregational Church : 

Marshal-in-Chief 
Dean  Frederick  C.  Ferry 

Faculty  Marshal 
Professor  Henry  D.  Wild 

Marshals  for  the  Delegates  and  Guests 

Professor  William  E.  McElfresh 
Assistant  Professor  Lewis  Perry 

Alumni  Marshals 

Henry  W.  Banks,  Jr.,  '85 
Herbert  J.  Brown   '85 

Special  Marshals 

Professor  James  G.  Hardy 

Assistant  Professor  Karl  E.  Weston 

Assistant  Professor  Monroe  N.  Wetmore 

Mr.  Elmer  I.  Shepard 

Mr.  Elmer  A.  Green 

Mr.  John  A.  Lowe 

Additional  Marshals 

Assistant  Professor  Theodore  F.  Collier 
Mr.  Samuel  E.  Allen 
Dr.  Frank  L.  Griffin 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

Dr.  Carl  W.  Johnson 

Dr.  William  L.  Kennon 

Dr.  Clyde  S.  Atchison 

Mr.  John  S.  Galbraith 

Dr.  James  Taylor,  Jr.,  '95 

Mr.  Scott  S.  Durand,  '90 

Student  Marshals 

Gilbert  Horrax,  '09 
Gilbert  Livingstone  Morse,  '09 

Leon  Sherman  Pratt,  '10 
Stuart  John  Templeton,  '10 

The  following  delegates  from  educational  institutions 
were  present: 

DELEGATES  FROM  COLLEGES,   UNIVERSITIES,  AND 
THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARIES 

Harvard  University,  President  Eliot  and  Professor  A. 
L.  Lowell 

Yale    University,  President  Hadley 

Princeton  University,  President  Wilson  and  Dean  Fine 

Columbia  University,  President  Butler 

Brown  University,  President  Faunce 

Rutgers  College,  President  Demarest 

Dartmouth  College,  Acting  President  Lord  and  Secre- 
tary Hopkins 

University  of  Vermont,  President  Buckham 

Bowdoin  College,  Professor  W.  T.  Foster 

Middlebury  College,  President  Thomas 

United  States  Military  Academy,  Colonel  Scott 

Andover  Theological  Seminary,  Dean  Platner 

Hamilton  College,  Professor  F.  H.  Wood 

Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  President  Beach 

Colgate  University,  Acting  President  Crawshaw 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

University  of  Virginia,  President  Alderman 

Indiana  University,  Professor  J.  P.  Porter 

Amherst  College,  President  Harris 

Trinity  College,  Professor  R.  B.  Riggs 

Rensselaer    Polytechnic    Institute,    President    Ricketts 

Western  Reserve  University,  President  Thwing  and  Pro- 
fessor H.  E.  Bourne 

Wesleyan  University,  Professor  W.  P.  Bradley 

Lafayette  College,  President  Warfield 

Haverford  College,  President  Sharpless 

Oberlin  College,  Professor  A.  S.  Root 

Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  Professor  W.  S.  Pratt 

Marietta  College,  Professor  E.  K.  Mitchell 

Mount  Holyoke  College,  President  Woolley 

Union  Theological  Seminary,  President  Brown 

Olivet  College,  President  Lancaster 

College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  President  Finley 

The  State  University  of  Iowa,  President  MacLean 

University  of  Wisconsin,  President  Van  Hise 

Tufts  College,  President  Hamilton 

Whitman  College,  President  Penrose 

Vassar  College,  President  Taylor 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  Acting  President 
Noyes 

Cornell  University,  President  Schurman 

The  University  of  Maine,  President  Fellows 

Lehigh  University,  Mr.  E.  H.  Williams,  Jr. 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  Dean  Mills 

University  of  Minnesota,  President  Northrop 

Union  College,  President  Alexander 

Smith  College,  President  Seelye 

Wellesley  College,  Professor  Elizabeth  K.  Kendall 

The  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Dean  Griffin 

Radcliffe  College,  Miss  Sarah  Yerxa 

Bryn  Mawr  College,  Professor  Florence  Bascom 

The  University  of  Chicago,  Dr.  Francis  W.  Parker 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

Simmons  College,  Professor  F.  E.  Farley 
Clark  College,  Dean  Bentley 

DELEGATES  FROM  ACADEMIES  AND  SCHOOLS 

The  Rev.  Huber  G.  Buehler,  The  Hotchkiss  School 
The    Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Ferguson,  St.  Paul's  School 
Mr.  Arthur  I.  Fiske,  The  Boston  Latin  School 
Dr.  Joseph  H.  Sawyer,  Williston  Seminary 
Mr.  Alfred  E.  Stearns,  Phillips  Academy 
The  Rev.  Dr.  William  G.  Thayer,  St.  Mark's  School 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Edward  D.  Tibbits,  The  Hoosac  School 
Dr.  Henry  P.  Warren,  The  Albany  Academy 

The   occasion  was   also   honored  by  the  presence   of 
the  following  guests: 

His  Excellency,  Curtis  Guild,  Jr.,  Governor  of  the  Com- 
monwealth 

The    Honorable    James    Bryce,  The    British    Ambassador 
Dr.    Franklin   Carter,    Ex-President    of   Williams   College 
Professor  F.  G.  Allinson,  Brown  University 
Mr.  Horace  E.  Andrews,  West  Mentor,  Ohio. 
Dr.  John  Bascom,  Williamstown 
Mr.  George  P.  Black,  West  Mentor,  Ohio. 
Dr.  John  Crosby  Brown,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
The  Rev.  William  A.  Brown,  Union  Theological  Seminary 
Professor  H.  C.  Butler,  Princeton  University 
Mr.  J.  H.  Coit,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
Mr.  H.  B.  Corner,  Cleveland,  Ohio 
The  Rev.  James  P.  Conover,  St.  Paul's  School 
Mr.  J.  D.  Cox,  Cleveland,  Ohio 

The  Honorable  W.  Murray  Crane,  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts 

Mr.  Zenas  Crane,  Dalton 
The  Rev.  W.  V.  W.  Davis,  Pittsfield 
Head-master  Wilson  Farrand,  Newark  Academy 
Professor  G.  D.  Kellogg,  Princeton  University 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Arthur  Lawrence,  Stockbridge 

Professor  William  Libbey,  Princeton  University 

Professor  R.  M.  McElroy,  Princeton  University 

Mr.  Amos  B.  McNairy,  Cleveland,  Ohio 

Mr.  Charles  MacVeagh,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Professor  Allan  Marquand,  Princeton  University 

Professor  C.  H.  Moore,  Harvard  University 

Mr.  Junius  S.  Morgan,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Mr.  Calvary  Morris,  Cleveland,  Ohio 

Dr.  James  G.  Mumford,  Boston 

John  Nicholson,  High  Sheriff  of  Berkshire  County 

Mr.  Charles  L.  Pack,  Lakewood,  N.  J. 

Lieutenant  H.  B.  Perkins,  of  the  Governor's  Staff 

Mr.  F.  H.  Presby,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Colonel  F.  S.  Richardson,  North  Adams 

Senator  C.  Q.  Richmond,  North  Adams 

Captain  F.  R.  Robinson,  of  the  Governor's  Staff 

Mr.  Max  J.  Rudolph,  Cleveland,  Ohio 

Mr.  A.  D.  Russell,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

Major  Philip  S.  Sears,  of  the  Governor's  Staff 

President  G.  B.  Stewart,  Auburn  Theological  Seminary 

Major  Ira  Vaughn,  of  the  Governor's  Staff 

Bishop  Vinton,  Springfield 

Brigadier-General  J.  G.  White,  of  the  Governor's  Staff 

At  half-past  nine  o'clock — the  weather  was  fine  and 
the  town  never  more  beautiful — the  first  division  of  the 
procession,  composed  of  students — mostly  upper-class 
men — in  caps  and  gowns,  preceded  by  the  Second  Regiment 
Band  of  Springfield,  the  High  Sheriff  of  Berkshire  County, 
and  Dean  Ferry,  the  Marshal-in-Chief,  moved  from  the 
Library  Campus  to  Hopkins  Hall,  where  the  Faculty, 
in  full  academic  dress,  joined  it.  From  this  point  the 
route  lay  across  Main  Street,  past  Morgan  Hall  to  Jesup 
Hall.  A  large  number  of  the  Alumni,  arranged  in  the 
order  of  their  classes,  fell  into  line  at  this  point,  and  the 

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INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

procession  then  marched  along  the  walk  in  front  of  the 
Scientific  Laboratories  and  between  West  College  and  the 
new  Clark  Hall  to  the  President's  house.  There  were 
gathered  the  Trustees,  the  candidates  for  honorary  de- 
grees, and  distinguished  guests.  Here  they  joined  the 
procession  in  the  following  order:  the  Rev.  Dr.  Adams, 
the  acting  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  Gover- 
nor Guild,  the  Governor's  Staff  in  full  uniform,  President- 
elect Garfield  and  Ambassador  Bryce,  the  Trustees  and 
the  candidates  for  honorary  degrees.  The  procession 
then  proceeded  to  the  Thompson  Memorial  Chapel,  where 
the  delegates  and  guests  were  already  seated  in  academic  or- 
der, and  where  morning  prayers  were  held,  at  which  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Dewey  of  Minneapolis,  Minnesota,  and  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Merriman  of  Worcester,  both  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
officiated.  At  this  service  the  order  of  exercises  was  as 
follows:  Processional  Hymn,  "How  firm  a  foundation, 
ye  saints  of  the  Lord";  Invocation;  Responsive  reading 
of  the  Sixty-seventh  Psalm;  Scripture  lesson;  Hymn, 
"Veni  Creator  Spiritus, "  sung  by  the  Choir;  Prayer; 
Hymn,  "Let  children  hear  the  mighty  deeds,"  sung 
by  the  congregation;  and  Benediction.  The  music  for 
the  last  two  hymns  was  composed  by  Mr.  Sumner  Salter, 
the  organist  of  the  College. 

From  the  Chapel  the  procession  marched  between  two 
lines  of  students,  extending  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  the  route,  to  the  Congregational  Church,  where  the 
exercises  of  induction  took  place.  The  procession  observed 
in  formation  the  following  order:  the  Undergraduates,  the 
Trustees  and  the  candidates  for  honorary  degrees,  the 
Faculty,  the  delegates,  the  guests,  the  Alumni.  At  the 
church  the  Trustees,  the  speaker  in  behalf  of  the  dele- 
gates, the  candidates  for  honorary  degrees,  and  the  orator 
who  presented  the  candidates  were  arranged  in  a  semi- 
circle on  the  platform, — the  chair  for  President-elect 
Garfield  occupying  the  centre  of  it,  with  Governor  Guild 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

on  the  right  and  Ambassador  Bryce  on  the  left.  In  the 
gallery  back  of  the  platform  the  Faculty  were  seated. 
The  delegates  and  guests  were  assigned  places  in  front 
of  the  platform.  Behind  them  came  the  undergraduates, 
while  the  Alumni  filled  the  side  sections  of  the  church, 
and  the  holders  of  tickets  occupied  the  galleries. 

The  church  had  no  decorations  except  two  American 
flags.  These  flags  belong  to  the  Class  of  1856,  of  which 
President  James  A.  Garfield,  the  father  of  the  President- 
elect, was  a  member,  and  were  hung  upon  the  rail  of  the 
choir-gallery  behind  the  platform.  One  of  them  was 
the  class  flag.  The  other  is  associated  with  a  meeting 
in  the  autumn  of  1855  of  Amherst  and  Williams  students, 
members  of  the  class  of  1856  in  the  two  colleges,  "on  the 
occasion  of  naming  a  high  ridge,  in  the  town  of  Charle- 
mont,  Mount  Pocumtuck. "  The  elder  Garfield  is  said 
to  have  led  his  class  up  the  mountain  and  to  have  carried 
this  flag.  A  poem,  "Under  the  Flag,"  suggested  by  the 
occasion,  was  read  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  class 
in  1906. 

The  ceremonies  in  the  church  proceeded  in  accordance 
with  the  following 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 

INVOCATION 

Ex-President  FRANKLIN  CARTER,  LL.  D. 

THE  INDUCTION 

The  Reverend  WILLIAM  WISNER  ADAMS,  D.  D. 
Chairman  of  the  Trustees 

THE  ACCEPTANCE 
The  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  COLLEGE 

CONGRATULATORY  ADDRESSES 

In  behalf  of  the  HONORABLE  DELEGATES 
President  WOODROW  WILSON,  LL.  D., 
Of  Princeton  University 

In  behalf  of  the  ALUMNI 
The  Reverend  JOHN  SHERIDAN  ZELIE,  D.  D., 
Of  the  Class  0/1887 

In  behalf  of  the  FACULTY 
Professor  JOHN  HASKELL  HEWITT,  LL.  D. 

In  behalf  of  the  UNDERGRADUATES 
ERNEST  HOSMER  WOOD,  of  the  Class  of  1909 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  ADDRESS 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 


HYMN 

Ein'  Feste  Burg 

A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God, 

A  bulwark  never  failing; 
Our  helper  He,  amid  the  flood 

Of  mortal  ills  prevailing. 
For  still  our  ancient  foe 
Doth  seek  to  work  his  woe; 
His  craft  and  power  are  great, 
And  armed  with  cruel  hate, 

On  earth  is  not  his  equal. 

Did  we  in  our  own  strength  confide, 
Our  striving  would  be  losing; 

Were  not  the  right  man  on  our  side, 
The  man  of  God's  own  choosing. 

Dost  ask  who  that  may  be  ? 

Christ  Jesus,  it  is  he; 

Lord  Sabaoth  is  his  name, 

From  age  to  age  the  same, 
And  he  must  win  the  battle. 


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INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

THE  CONFERRING  OF  DEGREES 

Presentations 
Professor  RICHARD  AUSTIN  RICE,  M.  A. 

Candidates   for   Honorary    Degrees 

DOCTOR  OF  LETTERS 
HENRY  PITT  WARREN 

Head-master  of  the  Albany  Academy  (1813) 

ARTHUR  IRVING  FISKE 

Head-master  of  the  Boston  Latin  School  (1635) 

DOCTOR  OF  DIVINITY 
FRANCIS  BROWN 

President  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  (1836) 

DOCTOR  OF  LAWS 
JACOB  GOULD  SCHURMAN 

President  of  Cornell  University     (1865) 

CHARLES  RICHARD  VAN  HISE 
President  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  (1848) 

GEORGE  HARRIS 

President  of  Amlierst  College  (1821) 

EDWIN  ANDERSON  ALDERMAN 

President  of  the  University  of  Virginia  (1819) 

NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER 

President  of  Columbia  University  (1754) 
ii 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

WOODROW  WILSON 
President  of  Princeton  University  (1746) 

ARTHUR  TWINING  HADLEY 

President  of  Yale  University  (1701) 

ABBOTT  LAWRENCE  LOWELL 

Professor  in  Harvard  University  (1636) 

JAMES  BRYCE 

The  British  Ambassador 

CURTIS  GUILD,  JR. 

Governor  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts 

Benediction 

The  Reverend  WILLIAM  WISNER  ADAMS,  D.  D. 
Organ  Postlude 


12 


THE   EXERCISES 

The  exercises  began  with  an  invocation  by  ex-President 
Franklin  Carter,  LL.  D.: 

Almighty  and  ever-living  God,  in  whom  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being,  as  we  gather  here  this  morning 
we  seek  thy  presence,  thy  blessing,  and  thy  help.  We 
praise  thee  for  the  revelation  of  thyself  in  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord,  by  whom  we  have  access  to  thee.  We  praise 
thee  for  the  influence  of  his  life  and  death,  for  the  up- 
lifting power  of  his  teaching  and  example.  And  now,  our 
Father,  we  beseech  thee  to  give  us  a  clear  vision  of  thy 
great  goodness  to  us  and  to  our  fathers,  and  help  us  to 
feel  a  deep  responsibility  for  our  precious  inheritance 
and  for  our  abundant  opportunities.  Help  us  to  realize 
that  we  are  dependent  on  thee  for  the  performance  of 
every  good  work  and  for  every  noble  purpose,  and  we  pray 
thee  that  that  wisdom  which  is  from  above  may  animate 
every  utterance  and  find  a  welcome  entrance  into  every 
heart.  We  pray  that  the  issue  of  this  service  may  be  for 
the  enlarging  of  human  minds,  for  the  ennobling  of  human 
thought,  and  for  the  larger  acceptance  of  a  truly  Christian 
view  of  the  human  life.  We  pray  thee  that  all  the  teach- 
ing in  this  college  and  all  its  ongoing  may  be  character- 
ized by  a  grateful  and  reverent  appreciation  of  the  life 
and  teaching  of  our  Divine  Master  and  by  ardent  loyalty 
to  his  leadership.  Grant  unto  us,  we  beseech  thee,  that 
we  may  all  follow  him.  Unite  our  hearts  in  devotion  to 
the  great  purpose  of  his  coming,  the  redemption  of  men 
from  sin  and  misery,  and  make  this  college  a  humble 
instrument  in  thy  hands  for  hastening  the  day  when  he 
shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied.  We  ask 
all  these  mercies  in  his  name;  and  as  he  taught  us,  we 
would  say: 

13 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  on  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  for- 
give us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass 
against  us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver 
us  from  evil.  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power, 
and  the  glory,  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen." 


THE    INDUCTION 

by  the  Rev.  William  Wisner  Adams,  D.  D.,  Chairman  of 
the  Trustees: 

Williams  College  comes  to-day  to  a  most  important 
transition  in  its  history.  On  the  twenty-fourth  day  of 
of  June,  1907,  Dr.  Henry  Hopkins  resigned  his  office  of 
President  of  the  College,  the  resignation  to  take  effect  at 
the  close  of  the  Commencement  exercises  of  the  present 
year.  On  the  following  day,  June  25,  1907,  the  Trustees 
elected  Harry  Augustus  Garfield,  then  Professor  of  Poli- 
tics in  Princeton  University,  to  be  the  successor  of  Dr. 
Hopkins  and  the  eighth  President  of  Williams  College. 
There  was  but  one  name  that  came  before  the  Board  of 
Trustees.  The  election  was  absolutely  unanimous,  not  in 
the  sense  that  no  one  voted  against  him,  but  that  every 
one  voted  for  him,  and  he  was  elected  on  the  first  ballot. 
The  trustees  voted  a  little  later  that  the  services  of  in- 
duction of  the  President  elect  should  take  place  on  the 
seventh  day  of  October,  1908,  and  to  that  function  we 
are  now  come. 

President  Garfield  arose  and  was  received  with  pro- 
longed applause.  The  chairman  continued, — 

I,  therefore,  acting  as  the  chairman  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  in  the  name  of  the  board  and  by  its  authority, 
do  now  declare  you,  Harry  Augustus  Garfield,  Doctor  of 

14 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

Laws,  to  be  the  duly  elected  President  of  Williams  College. 
In  testimony  whereof,  vesting  you  with  all  the  preroga- 
tives, powers,  responsibilities  and  privileges  of  that  office, 
I  hand  you  this  charter  of  the  College,  given  by  the  General 
Court  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  on  the 
twenty-second  day  of  June,  1793. 

According  to  the  terms  of  the  charter,  "the  purpose 
of  the  College  shall  be  the  instruction  of  youth  in  such 
manner  as  shall  most  effectually  promote  virtue  and  piety, 
the  learning  of  languages  and  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences." 
The  moral  and  spiritual  requisites  of  a  true  manhood  are 
always  the  same.  They  can  be  seen  more  clearly  and 
complied  with  more  completely  as  the  generations  pass 
away.  Since  the  giving  of  the  charter  the  number  of 
languages  needing  to  be  studied  is  larger  than  of  old,  as 
you  know;  the  number  of  liberal  arts  and  sciences  much 
larger;  the  development  of  knowledge  and  power  attained 
by  means  of  them  incomparably  greater.  Correspond- 
ingly greater,  therefore,  should  be  the  thoroughness  of 
mental  training,  the  well-poised  personality,  the  large 
and  firm  grasp  of  thought,  and  the  high  and  firmly-held 
ideals  and  aims.  You  know  the  high  ideals  of  the  best 
young  men  in  college,  their  noble  aspirations,  the  earnest 
devotion  of  their  consecration  to  their  work,  the  charm 
of  their  enthusiasm,  the  vigor  of  their  young  manhood 
and  the  contagion  of  every  fine  and  strong  personality, — 
contagion  peculiarly  active  in  college  life.  You  know,  also, 
the  evil  liabilities  which  come  from  the  materialism  and 
greed  of  our  time,  the  evil  liabilities  of  the  undiscerning 
to  think  much  more  highly  of  brawn  than  of  brains,  and 
to  seek  more  eagerly  social  diversions  than  the  intellectual 
conquest  of  the  world,  the  attainment  of  individual  charac- 
ter and  self-control,  and  of  that  daily  power  necessary 
to  cope  with  the  chaos  of  our  time  when  everything  is  in 
flux,  in  order,  as  we  believe,  that  there  may  come  radical 
reformations  and  magnificent  transformations  for  the 

15 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

grander  life  of  man  in  the  ages  to  come.  We  have  con- 
fidence in  you,  sir,  that  you  will  be  able  to  meet  and  be 
equal  to  the  responsibilities  of  your  high  office  in  guarding 
against  those  evil  liabilities  and  in  ministering  to  these 
high  needs.  You  have  had  experience  in  academic  life 
and  instruction.  You  have  had  experience  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  affairs  in  which  you  won  the  confidence 
of  men  in  days  gone  by. 

Some  of  us  here  gathered  to-day  remember  your  father 
in  his  college  days,  his  young  manhood,  his  noble  temper 
and  strength,  and  we  remember  what  he  said  of  the  worth 
of  college  training  to  mankind  and  of  the  worth  ot  this 
College  to  him.  We  remember  that  when  he  came  to  the 
high  office  of  President  of  the  United  States  he  won  the 
confidence  and  love  of  the  nation,  and  the  whole  world 
mourned  when  by  the  hand  of  violence  he  was  taken  away 
from  the  discharge  of  his  duty.  We  believe,  sir,  that  you  will 
prove  yourself  not  unworthy  of  such  a  father, — nay,  more 
than  that,  that  your  work  will  show  that  you  are  a  true 
and  loyal  son  of  the  Most  High,  discharging  the  duties 
which  God  has  given  you  as  unto  him  and  in  the  service 
of  his  kingdom. 

You  will  have  with  you  a  select  body  of  men,  the  Faculty 
of  this  College,  who  will  work  with  you  in  the  far-reaching 
service  of  education  and  training,  and  who  naturally,  and 
very  properly,  will,  from  time  to  time,  seek  your  aid  in 
the  discharge  of  their  laborious  duties.  It  will  be  your 
privilege,  also,  from  time  to  time,  to  make  selection  of 
others,  the  best  that  can  be  found,  whom  you  will  recom- 
mend for  appointment  in  this  College.  You  will  have 
behind  you  and  with  you  a  body  of  trustees,  chosen  from 
various  stations  and  relations  of  life,  men  of  culture  and  of 
power,  men  representing  many  interests  in  life,  men  of 
conspicuous  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  this  College.  You 
may  also  turn  to  them  with  confidence  in  their  sympathy 
and  cooperation.  They  will  always  be  most  ready  to 

16 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

strengthen  your  hands  and  to  furnish  you  with  needed 
facilities  for  your  work. 

I  put  into  your  hands,  also,  these  keys,  symbol  of 
the  property  committed  to  your  charge  and  use  in  giving 
the  best  and  most  symmetrical  education  practicable  in 
our  time.  Some  of  the  funds  represented  by  those  keys 
were  given  in  noblest  self-sacrifice,  with  the  prayers  of 
the  donors  that  their  gifts  might  be  greatly  serviceable 
in  the  promotion  of  the  highest  manhood  for  centuries 
to  come.  All  of  the  gifts  were  made  because  of  the  con- 
fidence of  the  donors  in  the  purposes  and  aims  of  this 
College,  because  of  their  admiration  for  its  history,  their 
love  of  its  traditions,  their  high  hopes  for  its  future  in 
doing  the  work  that  colleges  must  always  do  for  the  pro- 
motion of  the  continual  progress  of  mankind.  Preserve 
the  property  sacredly;  use  it  wisely,  prudently,  freely, 
for  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  given. 

And  may  Almighty  God,  our  Father  in  heaven,  give 
unto  you  wisdom  and  grace  to  show  yourself  a  man,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  heart,  in  the  position  where  he  has  placed 
you.  May  he  give  you  insight  and  courage,  tact  and 
efficiency,  and  the  spirit  of  a  continual  faithfulness,  accord- 
ing to  the  love  which  he  has  for  you,  in  doing  the  duties 
which  he  has  given  you  to  do  and  according  to  the  love 
which  he  has  for  the  multitudes  of  young  men  that  shall 
come  under  your  charge,  made  in  his  likeness  every  one 
of  them,  made  to  work  with  him  in  his  everlasting  king- 
dom and  to  share  with  him  in  his  eternal  glory. 

President  Garfield  responded  as  follows: — 

Dr.  Adams  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  Williams  College:  I  accept  the  trust  you  have  com- 
mitted to  me;  and,  in  all  humility,  with  a  keen  sense  of 
the  great  responsibility  involved,  but  with  reliance  upon 
Divine  favor,  if  what  is  done  is  well-pleasing  in  the  sight 
of  God,  I  assure  you  of  my  purpose  to  devote  my  best 
powers  to  the  service  of  this  College, — to  the  conservation 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

of  its  property,  the  welfare  of  all  connected  with  its  life, 
and  the  preservation  of  its  high  ideals. 

Address  of  President  WOODROW  WILSON,  LL.D.,  Presi- 
dent of  Princeton  University,  in  behalf  of  the  Honor- 
able Delegates. 

Mr.  President :  I  esteem  it  a  real  privilege  that  I  was  in- 
vited to  stand  here  and  bid  you  welcome  to  that  singu- 
lar fraternity  to  which  college  presidents  belong.  I  think 
that  you  would  deem  it,  and  all  who  know  the  circumstan- 
ces would  deem  it,  an  affectation  on  my  part  if  I  did  not 
express,  first  of  all,  the  personal  feeling  which  is  upper- 
most in  my  heart  at  this  moment.  I  know,  of  course, 
that  one  element  in  choosing  me  to  perform  this  service 
was  the  delightful  personal  relationship  which  had  existed 
between  you  and  us  at  Princeton;  otherwise  there  are  men 
representing  older  institutions  and  of  longer  experience 
who  would  have  been  entitled  to  stand  in  my  place. 

Perhaps  a  public  occasion  is  not  ordinarily  a  suitable 
occasion  for  expressing  personal  friendship  and  personal 
confidence;  but  perhaps,  also,  it  will  be  an  act  of  authenti- 
cation of  you  to  the  gentlemen  who  have  so  trusted  you 
with  this  high  office  to  say  what  you  have  been  at  Prince- 
ton. I  know  that  you  have  been  honored  by  us  on  another 
occasion,  and  that  you  have  won  many  friends  by  your 
experience  at  Princeton;  but  I  want  to  say  that  Princeton 
is  rendered  poor  by  your  leaving,  that  Princeton  has  profited 
by  your  counsels,  by  your  signal  equipoise  of  character, 
and  by  the  marked  proofs  of  your  deep-seated  kindliness 
and  wholesomeness  of  nature,  and  that  any  institution 
is  singularly  fortunate  to  get  so  strong  a  leader  and  so  wise 
a  counsellor  as  yourself. 

I  think  that  the  choice  of  a  man  like  yourself,  trained 
not  merely  in  academic  circles,  but  trained  also  in  the 
broader  circle  of  business  and  the  world,  has  a  singular 

18 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

significance  at  the  present  time.  For,  sir,  it  is  important 
that  college  administration  should  receive  more  than  a 
touch  of  statesmanship.  It  is  that  touch  which  you  may 
be  expected  to  give  to  the  administration  of  this  conspicu- 
ous and  distinguished  institution.  For  the  college  is  now 
bound,  in  times  of  confused  counsel,  to  supply  the  country 
not  merely  with  men,  in  the  ordinary  popular  sense  of 
that  word,  not  merely  with  strong  individualities,  not 
merely  with  wholesome  natures, — natures  rendered  whole- 
some by  the  purifying  influences  of  counsel, — but  also 
with  men  who  can  think,  men  who  can  interpret,  men 
who  can  perceive,  men  who  have  something  more  than 
skill  and  aptitude  and  knowledge,  men  who  look  beneath 
the  surface  of  affairs  and  know  the  genesis  of  affairs  and 
can  forecast — as  much  as  it  is  given  to  men  to  forecast — 
the  future  of  affairs,  men  who  are  ready  to  serve  the  country 
with  something  more  than  skill  and  knowledge,  men  who 
have  a  great  surplus  of  energy  and  of  understanding  to 
spend  in  the  service  of  the  country,  men  whose  attention 
is  not  wholly  centred  upon  making  their  own  living,  but 
is  spent  also  upon  the  very  exigent  matter  of  lifting  all 
the  counsels  of  the  country  to  a  higher  plane  and  place 
and  opportunity  of  vision. 

And  so  the  function  of  the  college  is  changing  with 
the  character  and  necessities  of  the  times.  I  believe  that 
we  have  centred  our  thoughts  too  much  upon  matters 
of  curriculum;  that  we  have  centred  our  thoughts  too 
much  upon  serving  the  individual  student  who  came  to 
us  and  too  little  upon  serving  the  country  through  the 
instrumentality  of  that  individual  student;  and  that  it 
is  just  as  important  to  concentrate  our  attention  upon 
the  spirit  of  the  college  in  respect  to  learning  and  the  ser- 
vice of  the  country,  and  upon  the  organization  of  the  life 
of  the  college,  as  it  is  to  centre  it  upon  the  curriculum 
itself.  The  curriculum  is  a  means  of  enabling  the  college 
faculty  to  promote  a  spirit  and  to  perfect  an  organization 

19 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

which  shall  carry  the  students  forward  to  better  things; 
and  therefore  it  is  as  important  to  draw  the  college  together 
in  its  several  parts  and  unite  them  in  a  common  under- 
taking as  it  is  to  give  instruction  in  the  class-room  and  see 
to  it  that  the  students  understand  the  difference  between 
truth  and  error;  because  if  the  student  does  not  draw 
near  to  the  professor  because  of  deference  to  him,  there 
is  coming  a  time  when  the  professor  will  not  draw  near 
to  the  student  because  of  deference  to  him. 

The  student's  attention  is  so  much  absorbed  by  the 
affairs  of  what  he  calls  his  life  that  the  teacher  gets  only 
the  residuum  and  balance  of  his  intellect.  There  is  coming 
a  time  when  we  must  draw  these  elements  together,  and, 
subordinating  neither,  unite  them  both  upon  an  equality, 
so  that  the  life  and  the  learning  and  the  attention  will  all 
be  indistinguishable,  and  there  will  be  no  contest,  but  our 
very  pleasures  shall  give  accent  and  salt  and  flavor  to 
our  intellectual  ambitions.  For  the  object  of  the  uni- 
versity is  singly  and  entirely  intellectual.  The  object  of 
sport,  the  object  of  social  pleasure,  is  relief  from  the  strain 
of  work;  but  pleasure  is  not  pleasure,  and  any  diversion 
is  professional,  if  it  be  not  simply  a  relief  from  the  main 
object  of  college  ambition. 

It  is  this  conception,  which,  it  seems  to  me,  you,  coming 
from  a  varied  experience,  having  touched  the  world  at  many 
points  and  known  men  of  many  kinds, — it  is  this  that 
you  will  seek,  and  this  which  you,  perhaps  better  than  any 
one  else,  will  be  instrumental  in  accomplishing.  I  con- 
gratulate you  upon  the  opportunity,  and  for  my  colleagues 
of  all  the  colleges  of  the  country  I  congratulate  Williams 
College  upon  her  choice  of  a  man. 

Address  of  Rev.  JOHN   SHERIDAN   ZELIE,   D.   D.,  of  the 

Class  of  1887,  in  behalf  of  the  Alumni. 
President  Garfield,   one  of  your  fellow  college  presi- 
dents who  sits  beside  you  to-day,  who  has  said  innumer- 

20 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

able  good  things  about  life  and  work,  said  a  few  years 
ago  that  "the  fortunate  man  is  the  man  who  has  the 
hard  job."  I  recall  that  saying,  not  to  apply  it  to 
your  position,  but  to  apply  it  to  my  own  on  the  day 
when  I  am  asked  to  express  the  good-will  of  your  thou- 
sands of  fellow-Alumni  to  you,  and  to  do  it  in  three 
minutes.  And  yet  we  want  you  to  know  that  every  man 
of  us  stands  ready,  if  called  upon,  to  give  a  reason  for  the 
faith  that  is  in  him  that  the  act  of  this  hour  means  the 
assured  welfare  of  this  College,  which  is  bound  up  with 
nearly  everything  that  we  hold  highest  in  the  world. 

Your  welcome  is  a  welcome  with  reasons.  It  is  pardon- 
able and  natural  if  many  of  those  who  sit  before  you  to- 
day find  their  welcome  colored  largely  by  the  remembrance 
that  you  belonged  to  that  class  in  this  College  of  which 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  now  seems  to  have  been 
able  to  supply  nearly  everything  that  a  commonwealth 
or  a  church  or  a  college  could  demand.  That  class  of 
yours  was  the  first-fruits  of  an  administration  which  began 
nearly  thirty  years  ago,  and  neither  you  nor  we  might  ask 
anything  more  than  that  this  beginning  of  new  things 
to-day,  under  your  own  direction,  should  inspire  these 
men  that  enter  with  you  in  the  same  way  that  that  new 
start  in  the  college  life  inspired  yours  so  long  ago. 

For  every  stage  in  your  life  there  are  some  here  to 
render  a  welcome  to  you  as  knowing  that  stage.  Many  of 
us  would  be  content  to  see  you  translated  into  this  office 
if  it  had  been  straight  from  that  citizenship  in  which  we 
were  fellow-citizens  with  you, — that  steadfast  citizenship 
of  yours  which  seemed  to  be  yours  as  by  nature.  Others 
rejoice  in  your  coming  because  you  come  freshly  from 
teaching  the  principles  of  that  citizenship  and  of  great 
public  interests  to  students  who  gave  you  their  enthusi- 
astic attention.  The  knowledge  of  it  has  made  the  college 
heart  glad,  as  you  come  to  it  to-day,  and  prepared  a  like 
reception  for  you  in  the  college  body  here. 

21 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

We  welcome  you  back  as  the  same  Williams  man  that 
we  have  always  trusted  in  every  stage  of  your  life,  but 
we  welcome  you  as  something  more,  recognizing  our 
debt  to  three  universities  whose  touch  has  passed  upon 
you,  in  two  of  which  you  were  a  teacher.  And  as  it  was 
a  source  of  just  pride  to  us  to  know  that  you  were  carrying 
the  gifts  of  Williams  to  those  two  places,  so  it  is  our  great 
happiness  to-day  to  know  that  the  loan  is  repaid  with 
interest,  and  that  we  are  to  have  the  last  and  the  best  of 
you  here  at  home. 

Not  the  least  of  our  joy  to-day  is  the  pleasant  tang 
of  predestination  that  there  is  in  the  air.  Some  of  us  have 
to  reproach  ourselves  year  after  year  for  our  remissness 
in  dealing  with  that  doctrine.  It  is  not  because  we  do  not 
believe  in  it;  we  are  always  intending  to  say  something 
about  it ;  but  when  such  a  pronounced  instance  of  it  occurs 
as  we  recognize  in  your  case  to-day,  it  is  a  temptation  to 
dwell  upon  the  doctrine  longer  than  you  would  have  pa- 
tience for  it.  I  content  myself  with  expressing  for  your 
fellow-Alumni  our  gratitude  to  Princeton  for  doing  its 
immemorial  work  once  more  and  bringing  the  lines  of 
that  predestination  out  so  that  they  are  unmistakable. 

And  yet  we  want  you  to  feel  that  this  is  not  a  mere 
gala  day  in  the  life  of  this  College  and  that  your  welcome 
is  not  chiefly  a  sentimental  welcome.  The  earnestness 
of  our  good-will  toward  you  springs  largely  from  the 
deepening  appreciation  that  we  all  have  of  what  the  office 
you  hold  means  in  the  land.  To  a  degree  never  known 
before,  the  names  of  those  who  hold  a  position  similar 
to  yours  are  become  household  words.  Your  judgments 
and  words  and  doings  are  awaited  with  an  expectancy  and 
received  with  a  seriousness  and  willingness  which  you 
may  little  appreciate,  among  thousands  and  thousands 
of  men  who  have  the  college  desire  but  do  not  have  the 
college  privilege.  We  welcome  you  into  such  a  position 
as  this  because,  in  doing  so,  we  welcome  you  not  merely 

22 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

as  our  own,  but  as  one  more  leader  given  to  filling  the 
world's  ever- increasing  hunger  and  need  of  leadership.  We 
welcome  you  into  that  position  because  we  believe  that 
you,  in  all  your  training  and  experience,  have  become 
able  to  say  almost  instinctively  that  great  word  which  our 
Lord  put  in  the  very  forefront  of  his  prayer,  as  the  first 
word  that  men  ought  always  to  remember  to  say, — the 
word  "  Our."  And  we  want  you  to  realize  how  many  more 
than  this  student  body  will  expect  to  have  a  share  in  your 
life.  We  want  you  to  speak  to  them.  We  do  not  expect 
you  to  do  it  immediately.  We  do  not  expect  you  to  speak 
when  you  have  nothing  to  say.  We  are  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted with  academic  affairs  to  know  that  many,  many 
times  in  the  life  of  a  college  president  he  is  too  amazed 
to  say  anything.  But  as  your  judgments  form,  as  you 
find  the  sure  inspirations  of  your  place,  we  want  to  hear 
from  you;  we  want  a  share  in  the  words  that  come  from 
your  lips  and  the  influences  that  go  from  your  life  to  these 
students  round  about  you. 

It  is  told  of  one  of  the  Prime  Ministers  of  England  that 
his  first  ambition  was  that  England  might  prosper  under 
his  administration,  and  his  second  ambition  was  that 
England  might  prosper.  Because  we  believe  that  it  is 
your  first  and  consuming  desire  that  Williams  shall  prosper( 
it  is  the  absolute  confidence  and  desire  of  your  fellow- 
Alumni  that  Williams  shall  prosper  under  you. 

Address  of  Professor  JOHN  HASKELL  HEWITT,  LL.  D.,  in 
behalf  of  the  Faculty. 

President  Garfield:  By  the  courtesy  of  my  colleagues  of 
the  Faculty  there  has  been  intrusted  to  me  the  pleasing 
office  of  extending  to  you,  sir,  their  hearty  congratu- 
lations on  this  auspicious  occasion,  and  of  giving  you  a 
most  cordial  welcome.  Happily  the  Trustees  have  not 
departed  from  the  custom  that  has  prevailed  here  for  three 

23 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

quarters  of  a  century  and  have  chosen  a  president  from 
among  the  Alumni.  It  is  to  me  the  source  of  no  small 
personal  pleasure  that,  in  this  period  of  my  service  in  the 
College,  I  can  welcome  to  the  presidency  one  who  was  a 
member  of  the  first  class  taught  by  me  twenty-six  years 
ago.  The  son  of  our  most  distinguished  Alumnus,  imbibing 
in  the  home  the  spirit  of  the  teachings  of  the  elder  Hopkins 
and  the  traditions  of  the  College;  pursuing  your  college 
course  in  the  very  first  years  of  an  administration  that 
was  in  all  respects  brilliant  and  was  especially  marked 
for  a  high  standard  of  scholarship;  supplementing  your 
academic  training  by  professional  studies  pursued  in  this 
country  and  abroad;  amid  the  exacting  duties  of  the  law 
becoming  the  ardent  apostle  of  civic  righteousness  in  a 
large  city;  and,  above  all,  the  successful  and  popular 
instructor  of  youth  in  a  venerable  university,  you  come 
to  the  varied  duties  of  your  new  office  with  rare  equipment. 
You  return  to  your  Alma  Mater  after  a  score  of  years  to 
find  the  number  of  students  and  alumni  nearly  doubled, 
the  productive  funds  and  the  values  of  buildings  multi- 
plied sevenfold,  and  instead  of  a  Faculty  of  sixteen,  a 
Faculty  of  fifty-eight  members,  who  hold  the  degrees  and 
represent  the  training  of  more  than  a  score  of  institutions. 
This  growth  brings  with  it  new  and  important  problems 
and  weighty  responsibilities.  Worthily  to  represent  the 
College  on  various  public  occasions;  to  attract  hither 
deserving  youth;  rightly  to  adjust  the  curriculum;  to 
preserve  the  traditions  of  the  college  as  to  standard  of 
scholarship  and  so  protect  the  value  of  our  degree;  to 
awaken  and  keep  alive  among  the  student  body  an  enthusi- 
astic love  of  science  and  letters; — in  short,  to  shape  the 
policy  of  the  College  for  a  century  to  come, — these  things 
will  devolve  largely  upon  yourself.  Though  you  assume 
your  duties  at  an  important  crisis  in  the  development  of 
our  educational  institutions,  you  will  probably  not  care 
to  develop  this  College  into  a  university,  and,  whether  or 

24 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

not  all  accept  the  statement  of  a  recent  writer  that  it  is 
the  function  of  the  small  college  to  train  boys  in  manliness 
and  the  humanities,  it  does  seem  all-important  at  this 
time  that  the  American  college  should  train  youth  in  that 
idealism  which  shall  hold  in  check  the  furious  trend  toward 
things  material.  It  is  a  time  when  educators  might  well 
pay  heed  to  the  words  of  that  prince  of  idealists, — Plato. 
"An  intelligent  man,"  says  he,  "will  naturally  choose 
those  studies  which  result  in  his  soul  getting  soberness, 
righteousness,  and  wisdom,  and  will  less  value  others." 
It  is  to  be  hoped,  sir,  that  under  your  prudent  guidance, 
while  holding  to  her  traditions  in  placing  culture  above 
knowledge  and  character  above  culture,  Williams  College 
will  help  meet  the  important  needs  of  our  country  in  pro- 
ducing a  statesmanship,  a  literature,  and  a  scholarship 
of  the  first  rank. 

It  now  remains  to  me  to  assure  you  that,  in  bearing 
the  burdens  and  meeting  the  responsibilities  of  your  office, 
the  members  of  the  Faculty,  unanimously  and  heartily 
approving  of  the  choice  of  the  Trustees,  pledge  to  you  a 
most  willing  and  hearty  cooperation. 

May  this  gift  of  the  presidency  offered  to  you,  sir,  prove 
to  be  heaven-sent,  and  so,  may  your  administration  be 
long,  honorable,  and  of  good  success. 

Address  of  ERNEST  HOSMER  WOOD,  of  the  Class  of  1909, 
in  behalf  of  the  Undergraduates. 

Mr.  President:  Reunions  have  become  familiar  to 
those  of  the  students  who  have  been  here  longest.  To  meet 
with  the  loyal  Alumni  who  flock  back  at  Commencement 
never  fails  to  arouse  our  enthusiasm,  and  each  year  we 
look  forward  to  that  event  with  the  greatest  anticipation. 
But  it  is  a  greater  inspiration  to  us,  this  gathering  of  emi- 
nent statesmen  and  prominent  educators  from  all  parts 
of  the  country,  who  are  here  to  witness  the  induction 
into  office  of  the  President  of  Williams  College.  It  is  an 

25 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

inspiration  to  every  undergraduate,  this  expression  of 
good-will  toward  the  College  and  all  that  it  stands  for. 

The  life  which  the  average  otudent  leads  tends  to  make 
him  narrow.  Our  college  world,  to  attain  the  object  for 
which  it  exists,  must  of  necessity  be  removed  from  the 
broader,  yet  distracting,  interests  of  the  outside  world. 
In  this  atmosphere  of  isolation  and  retirement  the  under- 
graduate comes  to  feel  that  there  is  but  one  college, — his 
own, — to  which  all  others  are  subordinate.  It  is  only 
when  he  comes  in  contact  with  students  of  other  insti- 
tutions, or  when  he  is  present  at  an  occasion  like  this,  that 
he  is  drawn  out  of  his  narrow  shell  and  comes  to  feel  that, 
instead  of  belonging  to  merely  one  college,  he  is  in  reality 
a  member  of  the  great  intellectual  brotherhood  of  America. 

The  gentleman  who  to-day  steps  into  the  presidency  of 
Williams  knows  this  College  from  both  points  of  view.  He 
has  been  here  as  a  student,  and  he  has  in  the  recent  past 
been  associated  with  a  university  whose  ideals  are  of  the 
most  progressive  sort.  He  understands  the  broad  significance 
of  a  college.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  prophesy  how  great, 
will  be  the  advancement  of  this  institution  under  his  guid- 
ance. 

Those  of  us  who  have  been  members  of  the  present 
undergraduate  body  longest,  who  have  only  one  year  of 
college  life  remaining,  cannot  but  feel  the  deepest  regret 
that  the  members  of  the  entering  class  can  never  know 
the  influence  of  our  late  president,  whose  geniality  and 
whose  kindly  and  cordial  friendship  for  young  men  are 
among  the  dearest  memories  of  our  college  course;  and  still, 
from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts,  we  envy  them  the  four 
years  they  have  yet  to  spend  under  the  leadership  of  a 
president  whom  the  whole  College  regards  as  the  creator 
of  the  new  Williams  of  the  future. 

We  students  are  young  men,  still  in  the  formative 
period  of  life.  We  do  not  presume  to  lay  claim  to  mature 
judgment  in  all  matters.  We  are  here  primarily  to  learn 

26 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

how  best  to  go  through  life  with  the  fewest  mistakes.  If 
at  any  time  our  actions  may  appear  to  be  based  on  anything 
else  than  tact  or  discretion,  it  is  for  us  to  be  judged  accord- 
ingly, but  nothing  can  be  further  from  our  wish  than  to  do 
anything  which  would  injure  in  any  way  the  best  interests 
of  Williams  College.  It  is  with  this  desire  to  do  our  utmost 
to  contribute  toward  the  general  progress  of  Williams 
during  the  short  time  we  are  here,  that  we,  as  undergrad- 
uates, pledge  to  you,  sir,  as  our  incoming  president,  and 
to  your  administration  the  most  loyal  support  of  which 
we  are  capable. 


27 


PRESIDENT   GARFIELD'S   ADDRESS 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  make  response  to  what  has 
been  said  to  me  this  morning.  It  would  be  impossible 
for  me  to  convey  to  you  an  adequate  idea  of  the  impression 
it  has  made  upon  me  or  of  the  feeling  of  humility  with  which , 
as  I  stated  to  the  trustees,  I  undertake  this"  task.  I  shall 
leave  it  to  that  which  is  more  eloquent  than  words, — to 
deeds,  in  the  hope  that  in  the  administration  of  this  office 
the  deed  may  correspond,  in  some  degree  at  least,  with 
what  you  have  been  pleased  to  address  to  me  here. 

The  theme  I  have  chosen  for  this  occasion  will  be 
found  in  the  answer  I  would  make  to  the  question,  "What 
is  the  chief  end  of  the  American  college?" 

Similar  questions  are  being  asked  concerning  organ- 
izations of  every  kind.  None  are  too  sacred  or  too  long 
established  to  escape,  and  none  should  desire  to  be  excused. 
Inquisitons  are  periodic.  They  vary  in  form  and  charac- 
ter with  the  times,  but  all  grow  out  of  a  laudable  desire 
to  be  rid  of  the  worn-out  and  unfit.  They  are  periods  of 
national  house-cleaning,  as  necessary,  though  quite  as 
disturbing,  as  their  domestic  prototype.  We  have  been 
passing  through  such  a  period  in  recent  months.  Insti- 
tutions of  higher  education  having  been  reached  in  the 
process  of  upheaval,  there  has  been  much  perturbation 
of  spirit  among  educators  and  alumni.  In  the  opinion  of 
some,  the  time  has  come  for  the  frank  abandonment  of 
the  old  order  of  things;  we  are  living  in  a  larger  world, 
on  a  more  extensive  scale ;  what  was  suitable  to  our  acade- 
mic needs  a  few  decades  ago  is  no  longer  so.  To  others 
the  larger  world  is  sadly  in  need  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities  imparted  under  the  old  order. 

Though  the  American  college  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  discussion  during  the  past  few  years,  it  has  been 
treated,  for  the  most  part,  in  its  relation  to  secondary 

29 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

schools  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  professional  schools  on  the 
other.  But  before  we  undertake  to  say  what  its  relation 
ought  to  be  to  other  educational  institutions,  we  must 
make  sure  that  its  existence  in  any  form  is  warranted- 
This  depends  quite  as  much  upon  end  and  object  as  upon 
performance.  The  mere  fact  that  an  institution  continues 
to  perform  some  service  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  its  con- 
tinuance. The  service  must  be  adequate;  an  impossible 
requirement  unless  it  be  actuated  by  an  object  that  is 
both  definite  and  necessary. 

The  charge  of  vagueness  of  aim  brought  against  the 
American  college,  is,  in  part  at  least,  well  founded,  and 
to  this  fact  is  largely  due  the  weakening  of  intellectual 
stamina  observed  among  undergraduates.  It  is  rare  that 
men  are  found  idling  in  the  professional  schools.  One 
constantly  hears  it  said  of  a  young  man  who  has  passed 
through  four  years  of  undergraduate  life,  with  ease  if 
not  with  dignity,  that  he  is  now  at  the  law  school  working 
hard,  with  an  eye  single  to  the  main  issue.  Vagueness  of 
aim  has  given  place  to  clear  purpose.  But  that  which  is 
general  is  not  necessarily  vague.  To  train  the  whole  body 
by  vigorous  and  regular  exercise,  that  one  may  be  stronger 
and  physically  more  fit  for  the  pursuits  of  every-day  life, 
is  quite  as  definite  as  to  develop  bodily  prowess  for  par- 
ticipation in  some  particular  sport. 

What  is  wanted  in  our  colleges  is  an  object  that  can 
appeal  to  every  student,  whatever  may  be  the  future 
life-work  of  each.  This  object  must  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  times,  without  sacrificing  the  rich  heritage  of  the 
past.  It  must  quicken  and  inspire  men  to  new  and  higher 
conceptions  of  life,  without  rendering  them  less,  but  rather 
more,  efficient  members  of  society.  Such  an  object  is 
expressed  by  the  word  citizenship.  America's  greatest 
need  is  that  the  men  and  women  of  the  United  States 
comprehend  all  that  citizenship  imports,  and  live  up  to 
its  obligations.  Hence,  I  venture  to  assert  that  the  chief 

30 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

end  of  the  American  college  is  to  train  citizens  for  citizen- 
ship. 

Many  alumni,  and  most  men  without  experience  of 
academic  life,  think  of  college  as  a  place  of  pleasant  com- 
radeship; a  place  where  cultivated  ease  and  boisterous 
zeal  join  hands  for  a  season;  a  charming  valley,  as  it  were, 
where  the  waters  of  the  stream  of  life,  let  through  protecting 
locks,  flow  gently  between  banks  made  glad  by  a  thousand 
flowers,  through  groves  set  with  stately  and  noble  trees, 
a  place  happily  removed  from  the  dust  and  heat  of  the 
weary  highway  over  which  the  schoolboy  has  trudged; 
a  place  from  which  one  embarks  on  the  main  stream  of 
life  after  a  season  of  preparation,  which  consists  of  learning 
how  to  paddle  one's  own  canoe  without  responsibility 
for  consequences.  In  other  words,  college  seems  to  them 
a  place  of  privilege,  in  which  one  experiences  much  that 
is  pleasant  and  acquires  something  that  is  profitable. 

Too  often  men  think  of  citizenship  in  the  same  way. 
It  is  regarded  as  a  status  of  which  one  may  be  justly  proud, 
but  is  prized  chiefly  for  the  personal  advantages  and  privi- 
leges it  secures.  The  consideration  which  ought  to  move 
from  the  individual  to  the  State  in  return  for  these  privi- 
leges is  regarded  as  a  burden  to  be  shifted,  land  where  it  will. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  college  is  a  pleasant  place  and 
that  citizenship  is  a  privilege,  but  each  is  vastly  more. 

If  the  chief  end  of  the  college  is  what  I  have  stated  it 
to  be,  it  is  important  to  form  a  clear  notion  of  what  citizen- 
ship is.  Vagueness  of  aim  is  to  be  avoided  at  all  hazards. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  the  legal  meaning  of  the 
term,  or  to  discuss  the  privileges  incident  to  its  possession. 
With  its  advantages  we  are  sufficiently  acquainted.  Its 
duties  are  service  and  responsibility  to  the  State,  to  the 
end  that  the  highest  ideals  of  the  nation  may  be  realized. 
These  ideals  differ  among  different  peoples.  Their  roots 
are  deep  down  in  the  subsoil  of  racial  experience  long 
since  forgotten.  But,  inasmuch  as  present  experiences 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

and  existing  conditions  are  constantly  added  to  those  of 
the  past,  it  follows  that  national  ideals,  which  are  the 
fruit  of  national  experiences,  will  change. 

In  so  far  as  these  experiences  are  subject  to  man's 
control,  it  lies  within  the  power  of  every  nation  to  move  its 
ideals  upward,  absolutely  as  well  as  relatively.  But  this 
power  is  exercised  by  the  individuals  composing  the 
nation  as  a  whole.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  national 
power,  experience,  ideals,  apart  from  the  individual,  and 
the  individual  can  no  more  escape  making  his  impress 
upon  the  nation's  life  than  he  can  avoid  shaping  his  own 
character.  Hence  it  follows  that  there  rests  upon  each 
citizen  a  direct  responsibility  for  the  well-being  of  the  nation, 
and  for  what  this  involves,  the  maintenance  of  its  ideals. 
This  is  so  whatever  the  form  of  government ;  but  especially 
is  it  true  when,  as  in  the  United  States,  government  is 
based  squarely  on  the  proposition  that  the  people  rule. 

Not  all  have  the  gift  to  perceive  the  wave  of  feeling 
which  sweeps  through  the  heart  of  a  people;  to  interpret 
it,  to  formulate  it,  and  to  give  it  power.  But  all  can  under- 
stand and  appreciate  that  to  which  the  more  prescient 
have  given  form  and  expression.  All  must  be  able  to  follow, 
though  some  only  be  trained  to  command,  or  have  the 
gift  of  leadership.  A  great  nation  never  lacked  for  leaders, 
but  great  leaders  have  frequently  failed  becase  of  a  supine 
people.  A  nation  will  be  great  and  strong  whose  citizens, 
bound  together  by  common  traditions,  inspired  by  high 
ideals,  march  forward  with  eager  and  steady  tread  toward 
a  goal  which  is  ever  advancing. 

To  attain  to  that  standard  requires  long  and  patient 
effort,  for  it  means  that  the  vast  majority  must  be  brought 
up  to  the  highest  level  of  well-trained,  high-minded,  efficient 
manhood.  More  specifically,  it  means  that  citizens  must 
be  trained  to  easy  control  of  their  mental  faculties  as  well 
as  of  their  bodily  power: — trained  to  distinguish  between 
scientifically  determined  facts  and  loosely  reasoned  opinions ; 

32 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

to  discriminate  between  things  and  conditions  of  varying 
value;  to  be  zealous  in  everything  that  makes  for  the  ad- 
vancement and  welfare  of  the  whole  body.  It  means 
that  the  vast  majority  must  be  keen  to  know;  constant 
in  service;  quick  to  sacrifice  their  own  for  the  common 
good;  possessed  of  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  not  merely  of  those  of 
the  particular  class  with  which  each  works  and  plays. 
It  means  that  the  majority  must  come  at  last  to  realize 
that  a  nation's  highest  welfare  is  somehow  and  always 
inextricably  a  part  of  the  highest  welfare  of  mankind 
everywhere;  though,  because  of  his  finiteness  and  the 
limitations  of  time  and  space,  man's  service  to  mankind 
can  be  best  rendered  through  the  channels  of  a  particular 
nationality  and  under  allegiance  to  a  particular  govern- 
ment. The  nation  that  would  grow  from  great  to  greater 
must  bring  the  vast  majority  of  its  citizens  to  cherish  the 
principles  upon  which  the  government  is  founded;  to  know 
the  nation's  experiences,  and  to  render  a  service  that  may 
be  described  briefly  as  consisting  in  efficient  performance, 
by  all,  of  the  duties  prescribed  for  all,  and  in  the  assump- 
tion, by  each,  of  his  full  share  of  the  burdens  of  govern- 
ment. Citizenship  of  this  kind  is  no  mere  ideal.  It  is 
composite  of  ideals  and  action.  Ideals  unattempted  are 
dead  things;  they  shrivel  up  as  the  disused  powers  of 
the  body  atrophy.  On  the  other  hand,  action,  not  in- 
spired and  regulated  by  ideals,  is  motiveless,  unhuman, 
machine-like. 

As  I  have  said,  to  accomplish  this  result  is  a  vast  busi- 
ness,— time  and  patience  are  prime  requisites  to  the  task. 
It  can  be  done  by  no  one  person  or  separate  group  of 
persons.  In  a  sense  it  must  be  everybody's  business;  but 
it  must  be  the  particular  business  of  some  to  set  in  motion 
and  keep  going  the  force  that  is  to  actuate  the  whole  body 
of  the  people.  The  thing  won't  get  itself  done,  and  the  agency 
selected  must  keep  the  object  aimed  at  constantly  in 

33 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

view.  The  preparatory  schools  are  of  necessity  preoccu- 
pied with  mental  drill- work, — with,  at  most,  the  rudi- 
ments of  learning.  On  the  other  hand,  the  vocational 
schools  are  engaged  in  preparing  their  students  to  earn 
a  living,  or  to  pursue  research  in  some  particular  direc- 
tion. As  in  the  preparatory  schools,  the  work  of  the 
instructor  is  with  the  individual,  for  the  use  and  benefit 
of  the  individual  himself;  whereas  the  business  of  lifting 
citizenship  to  a  higher  level  requires  work  with  the  indi- 
vidual and  a  life  for  the  individual  of  a  kind  that  will  fit 
him  to  think  and  act  for  the  State  and  for  the  whole  body 
of  society.  To  hope  that,  while  one  is  chiefly  and  intensely 
occupied  with  learning  how  to  serve  self,  he  will,  somehow, 
in  the  process,  come  to  know  how  to  serve  society  and  the 
State,  except  by  relieving  them  of  the  burden  of  his  support, 
is  as  idle  as  to  hope  to  regenerate  the  world  by  shutting 
one's  self  up  in  a  monastery.  The  problems  of  govern- 
ment and  society  are  quite  as  definite  as  the  problems  of 
any  business  or  profession,  but  they  are  far  more  com- 
plex and  difficult,  for  they  include  every  other.  They 
are  always  objective  and  impersonal,  while  most  others 
are  subjective,  and  have  primarily  to  do  with  self's  welfare. 
Under  the  established  order  of  educational  work  in  the 
United  States,  the  college  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
task  of  training  citizens  to  this  kind  of  citizenship. 

But  while  I  believe  it  to  be  the  chief  end  of  the  Ameri- 
can college  to  devote  itself  to  this  task,  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  it  has  no  other  aim.  It  has  several  others,  but 
they  are  secondary  or,  more  properly,  contributory,  or 
complementary,  to  this  chief  end.  For  example,  it  is 
certainly  an  object  of  the  college  to  prepare  students 
for  the  vocational  schools.  When,  however,  we  reflect 
that  some  only  are  to  be  lawyers,  or  doctors  or  clergymen 
or  chemists  or  engineers,  though  all  are  citizens,  it  is  clear 
that  the  college  ought  not  to  make  the  preparation  of 
students  for  the  professional  schools  the  chief  end  of  its 

34 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT   GARFIELD 

existence.  Again,  it  is  true  that  institutions,  other  than 
the  college,  are  actively  engaged  in  training  men  and 
women  to  the  obligations  of  citizenship.  The  churches, 
the  primary  and  secondary  schools,  and,  one  may  fairly 
add,  the  hospitals  and  prisons,  are  so  engaged;  but  in 
none  of  these  instances  can  we  properly  say  that  this  is 
their  chief  object.  Also,  there  are  ways  quite  individual 
and  non-institutional  by  which  many  of  the  great  citizens 
of  every  nation  have  made  themselves,  or  have  been  made, 
fit  for  citizenship.  None  of  these  considerations,  however, 
relieves  the  college  of  its  peculiar  responsibility.  Hence, 
we  ought,  by  no  means,  to  give  assent  to  the  suggestion 
that  the  college  has  outlived  its  usefulness,  and  should 
either  sink  into  the  high  school  or  be  merged  in  the  uni- 
versity. Until  the  ideal  of  citizenship  shall  have  been 
realized,  the  integrity  of  the  college  must  be  preserved, 
whether  it  maintains  an  independent  existence,  or  is  part 
of  a  university.  The  American  college,  like  the  American 
state,  is  a  vital  part  of  our  system. 

It  has  long  been  the  proud  boast  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge that  they  have  educated  the  governors  of  England. 
Should  it  not  be  the  boast  of  the  American  colleges  that 
they  are  performing  the  same  kind  of  service  for  the 
United  States?  But  the  governors  of  England  and  the 
governors  of  America  are  drawn  from  different  classes, 
and  the  methods  adopted  must  differ  accordingly.  Mea- 
sured by  quantity  alone,  our  problem  is  vastly  more  diffi- 
cult than  that  of  England. 

I  pass  now  from  the  general  proposition  to  its  appli- 
cation to  the  college.  How  can  the  college  best  accom- 
plish this  chief  end  of  its  existence?  No  organization 
becomes  effective  until  it  finds  itself.  The  process  by 
which  this  is  accomplished  depends  upon  a  few  general 
principles  of  action,  which,  in  the  case  of  any  particular 
college,  may  be  stated  as  follows:  In  the  first  place,  there 
must  be  a  clear  understanding,  on  the  part  of  all  concerned, 

35 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

of  the  function  of  the  college,  that  is  to  say,  a  common 
object;  otherwise  there  will  be  divided  counsels  among 
those  in  authority  and  friction  with  those  under  authority. 
In  the  second  place,  there  must  be  a  determined  purpose 
to  carry  out  this  object.  The  atmosphere  of  an  institution, 
whose  members  lack  the  courage  of  their  convictions,  is 
deadly,  and  will  produce  weak  men  and  pusillanimous 
citizens.  There  must  be,  in  the  third  place,  abroad,  vigor- 
ous, common  life,  and  it  must  include  the  whole  body — 
faculty  as  well  as  undergraduates.  Anything  which 
separates  men  into  classes,  based  on  objects  opposed  or 
unfriendly  to  the  main  object  of  the  college,  is  out  of  place 
and,  in  the  end,  will  inevitably  divert  the  aim  of  the 
institution  and  change  its  character.  There  will  always, 
of  course,  be  groups  within  the  whole  body.  Diversity  of 
taste,  of  temperament,  of  previous  affiliations,  will  natur- 
ally and  properly  divide  men  into  groups  for  different 
purposes;  but  each,  according  to  its  kind,  must  contribute 
its  share  to  the  great  end  for  which  the  whole  exists, 
if  it  would  qualify  for  a  permanent  and  honorable  place. 
Among  the  crew  of  a  battleship  are  many  classes  and 
groups,  official  and  otherwise;  but  all  must  work  together 
as  one  well-organized,  harmonious  whole,  if  efficiency 
in  action  is  to  be  secured. 

The  value  of  a  common  life  for  the  college  is  appreci- 
ated the  moment  one  grasps  the  supreme  object  of  its 
existence.  The  nation  demands,  and  tradition  prescribes, 
a  common  life  for  the  people  of  this  country,  and  every- 
thing within  our  colleges,  which  makes  against  the  spirit 
of  this  demand,  affects  injuriously  both  the  college  and 
the  character  of  our  citizenship.  Indeed,  I  would  go  a 
step  further,  and  say  that,  unless  the  colleges  respond 
to  this  demand  by  shaping  the  life  within  their  walls 
in  accordance  with  its  spirit,  they  had  best  be  allowed 
to  die.  Conversely,  the  colleges  have  it  in  their  power 
to  shape  the  future  of  government  in  the  United  States, 

36 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

if  they  seize  the  opportunity  that  is  theirs.  The  common 
life  of  any  community  is  broad  and  vigorous  when  each 
member  shares  in  it  to  the  fullest  extent  consistent  with 
his  powers  and  qualifications,  but  subject  always  to  that 
sound  maxim  of  equity:  Sic  utere  tuo  ut  alienas  non  Icedes. 
For  example,  the  tradition  which  separates  the  faculty 
and  students  is  wholly  inconsistent  with  this  principle 
of  a  common  life.  There  is  a  distinction  between  the  two 
groups,  of  course,  but  it  is  based  on  something  higher 
and  finer  than  mere  authority.  The  active  body  of  the 
college  is,  in  reality,  divided  into  five  large  groups,  of 
which  four  are  undergraduates.  The  fifth  is  composed 
of  graduate  students,  commonly  called  the  faculty,  who, 
by  virtue  of  their  larger  experience  and  longer  training, 
are  given  places  of  authority.  When,  at  the  end  of  his 
school-life,  a  young  man  elects  to  enter  college,  he  vol- 
untarily associates  himself  with  a  body  of  educated, 
cultivated  men.  He,  so  to  speak,  puts  on  the  intellectual 
toga  virilis.  He  elects  to  cast  aside  henceforth  the  things 
of  boyhood,  and  to  associate  with  men.  He  has  taken 
a  long  step  upward, — -vaulted  from  boyhood  into  man- 
hood, one  might  say.  To  demand  that  he  be  granted 
the  freedom  of  manhood  and,  at  the  same  time,  be  ex- 
cused from  its  responsibilities,  is  childish.  It  must  be  assum- 
ed that  he  is  in  sympathy  with  the  object  of  the  institution 
with  which  he  has  affiliated  himself,  even  if  he  sees  it  but 
dimly  at  first,  and  that  he  stands  ready  to  cooperate 
loyally,  and  to  the  full  extent  of  his  powers,  in  working 
toward  that  object. 

That  this  program  involves  hard,  as  well  as  high, 
thinking,  should  occasion  no  surprise.  The  student  has 
chosen  the  companionship  of  scholars,  of  men  who  have 
learned  to  see  things  in  right  perspective,  as  well  as 
to  discern  their  finer  shades  and  qualities.  In  such  com- 
pany, it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  sports  of  the  field  will 
be  subordinated  to  intellectual  interests,  and  that  the 

37 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

common  purpose  demands  a  common  life  in  which  all  shall 
share.  If  our  young  man  objects  to  this  standard,  if  he 
seeks  a  pleasant  place  of  residence  in  which  to  while  away 
four  happy,  careless  years,  let  him  not  seek  entrance  to 
the  college  whose  aim  is  high  and  serious.  He  will  be  out 
of  place  there. 

Assuming  the  soundness  of  the  general  proposition, 
in  what  way  should  it  affect  the  actual  life  of  our  colleges  ? 
The  question  can  be  conveniently  treated  under  three 
heads:  the  care  of  the  body,  the  training  of  the  mind,  and 
the  development  of  the  moral  and  religious  nature. 

(i)  As  sound  bodies  conduce  to  clear  thinking,  and 
clear  thinking  is  essential  to  good  citizenship,  it  follows 
that  careful  attention  should  be  given  to  physical  training. 
Every  college  man  should  participate  in  some  sport. 
Bodily  skill  and  balance  furnish  not  only  healthful  and 
enjoyable  relaxation  from  the  pursuits  of  the  study,  but 
contribute  directly  to  one's  control  of  the  intellectual 
faculties.  The  bare  statement  of  these  undisputed  truths 
is  condemnation  enough  of  one-sided  development  of 
athletics  in  our  colleges.  "Supporting  the  team"  in  the 
cheering  section  is  an  unwarrantable  sacrifice  just  in  so 
far  as  it  takes  any  man  away  from  his  own  exercise.  Spon- 
taneous cheering  is  natural  and  commendable;  but  organ- 
ized, it  easily  degenerates  into  a  purpose  to  disconcert  the 
opposing  team,  and  in  so  far  forth  is  unsportsmanlike. 
The  movement  toward  the  further  development  of  in- 
tramural athletics  is  a  direct  response  to  the  demand  that 
every  college  man  should  engage  regularly  in  some  form  of 
health-giving  sport.  Intercollegiate  athletics,  within  reas- 
onable limits,  are  productive  of  good  results,  but  the 
limits  are  easily  exceeded.  We  Americans  are  justly  charg- 
ed with  overdoing  things.  Our  enthusiastic  athlete  proves 
too  much  for  his  case.  It  is  true  that  intercollegiate  ath- 
letics stir  up  interest  in  sport ;  that  to  put  a  winning  team  in 
the  field  inspires  a  still  greater  enthusiasm ;  that  it  develops 

38 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

admirable  nerve;  that  it  keeps  men  out  of  mischief  and 
advertises  the  college.  But  it  is  also  true  that  a  school 
for  athletes,  devoting  its  whole  time  and  energy  to  the 
business,  would  be  far  more  successful  in  these  respects, 
and  that  over-developed  athletic  activities  in  a  college 
advertise  it  in  a  way  to  be  deplored. 

In  other  words,  we  should  be  governed  in  this  matter, 
as  in  every  other,  by  constant  reference  to  the  object  we 
have  in  view.  It  is  neither  fitting  nor  necessary  that  college 
students  should  cultivate  professional  skill  in  any  of  their 
sports,  intercollegiate  or  otherwise.  They  should  "  play 
the  game"  with  as  much  skill  as  is  consistent  with  de- 
votion to  the  chief  end  of  the  college,  and  no  more;  or, 
to  express  it  somewhat  more  specifically,  with  as  much 
skill  as  is  possible  to  those  who  are  devoting  themselves 
to  the  task  of  training  their  minds  to  grasp  and  deal  with 
the  most  serious  problems  of  the  age, — the  problems  of 
citizenship;  with  as  much  skill  as  is  consistent  with  mem- 
bership in  an  institution  whose  chief  end  is  intellectual 
rather  than  physical. 

But  the  moment  so  much  is  said,  it  becomes  apparent 
that  the  burden  rests  upon  the  authorities  of  the  college 
to  see  to  it  that  the  intellectual  in  the  life  of  the  place 
flows  strong  and  clear.  It  is  narrow  and  short-sighted 
to  cut  off,  or  even  diminish,  athletic  contests,  except  for 
the  excellent  reason  that  they  interfere  with  something 
higher  or  better.  The  true  basis  of  any  program  for  re- 
Sstablishing  the  proper  balance  between  the  curriculum 
and  the  campus  is  positive,  not  negative.  Vitalize  and 
enrich  the  intellectual  life  of  a  college,  strengthen  its  moral 
fibre,  direct  its  energies  toward  a  definite  goal,  and  the 
exaggerated  value  set  on  secondary  things  will  disappear. 

(2)  Coming  then  to  the  question  of  the  training  of  the 
mind, — what  shall  the  college  man  be  taught?  Vocat- 
ional schools  find  comparatively  little  difficulty  in  deciding 
what  to  teach,  for  each  vocation  has  its  definite  body  of 

39 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

requirements,  among  which  accurate  and  extensive  know- 
ledge plays  the  largest  part.  But  the  college  cannot  avoid 
the  difficulty  that  inevitably  accompanies  the  training  of 
powers  and  the  cultivation  of  a  way  of  looking  at  things , 
as  distinguished  from  the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  To 
adopt  as  a  plank  in  our  educational  platform  the  state- 
ment which  I  have  ventured  to  formulate  concerning  the 
college,  does  not  lessen  the  difficulty,  for  citizenship  of  the 
kind  described  is  possible  only  among  men  whose  minds 
are  well  trained  and  broadly  cultivated,  and  whose  view 
of  life  is  generous,  as  well  as  clear.  It  therefore  follows 
that  those  subjects  should  be  taught  which  train  the  several 
aptitudes  and  powers  of  the  mind.  Extensive  knowledge 
cannot  take  the  place  of  intensive  training.  While  all 
subjects  lend  themselves  to  this  result,  some  are  more 
suitable  than  others.  Experience  has  proved  the  value 
of  language,  mathematics,  philosophy,  and  science.  The 
several  subjects  included  in  any  one  of  these  general  groups 
call  out  and  develop  the  same  kind  of  powers.  Taken 
together,  any  one  group  of  such  subjects  constitutes  a  field  of 
knowledge,  which,  for  the  student,  is  a  training-ground, 
different  in  character  and  discipline  from  any  other.  The 
subjects  of  each  group  supplement  and  complement  the 
subjects  of  any  other  group.  Thus,  though  it  is  impossible 
to  be  well  informed  in  all  subjects,  it  is  within  the  reach 
of  every  man  of  average  ability  to  be  trained  in  the  intel- 
lectual processes  and  informed  concerning  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  each  field  of  knowledge.  Therefore 
every  college  student  should  be  required  to  take  courses 
in  each  of  these  general  fields  or  groups.  Breadth  of 
training  makes  a  balanced  man,  and  balance  is  as  essential 
to  intellectual  progress  as  to  walking.  It  is  a  condition 
precedent  to  success  to  the  scholar  as  well  as  to  the  citizen. 
Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  personal  inclination  and 
taste,  the  same  program  should  be  followed,  for  the  stud- 
ent can  exercise  no  intelligent  choice  between  the  several 

40 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

groups  of  subjects  until  he  has  been  made  familiar  with 
the  extent  and  general  character  of  each.  Within  the 
limits  of  any  one  field,  however,  the  case  is  entirely  differ- 
ent. There,  great  freedom  of  choice  should  prevail. 

That  some  subjects  produce  better  results  than  others 
in  the  same  general  group  is  due  rather  to  the  accident 
of  time  and  to  perfection  of  method,  than  to  qualities  in- 
herent in  the  subjects.  Consider,  for  example,  the  teaching 
of  Greek.  Both  the  language  and  the  method  of  instruc- 
tion have  been  standardized,  if  I  may  borrow  a  term  from 
the  shops.  This  result  has  come  about,  in  part,  because 
the  language  is  "dead,"  thereby  lending  itself  to  fixed 
methods  of  analysis  and  treatment,  and  in  part  because 
it  has  been  studied  long  enough,  since  its  revival,  to  enable 
teachers  to  agree  upon  the  authors  to  be  read  and  the  order 
in  which  their  work  can  most  profitably  be  placed  before 
the  student. 

These  considerations  give  to  Greek,  as  to  Latin,  a 
peculiar  claim  to  consideration  as  a  discipline,  wholly 
aside  from  the  question  of  literary  quality  and  historic 
value.  A  like  result,  so  far  as  intellectual  training  is  con- 
cerned, may  be  obtained  in  the  teaching  of  a  modern 
language,  but  with  far  greater  difficulty.  Methods  of 
teaching,  the  substance  and  extent  of  courses,  differ  so 
widely,  that  in  reducing  the  results  to  a  common  basis  for 
class-room  work,  serious  loss  is  inevitable.  Furthermore, 
the  outcry  that  is  heard  when  a  modern  language  is  thor- 
oughly taught,  raises  the  suspicion  that  opposition  to 
classics  is  due  largely  to  the  very  thing  which  commends 
them  to  the  educator,  namely  their  value  as  training 
subjects.  If  modern  languages  are  to  be  treated  as  substi- 
tutes for  the  classics  in  any  real  sense,  they  must  be  studied 
with  the  same  degree  of  attention  to  grammatical  con- 
struction and  composition  that  is  required  of  the  student 
of  Latin  and  Greek,  subject  only  to  such  differences  as 
arise  because  of  the  fact  that  they  are  still  spoken  languages. 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

To  those  who  advocate  the  substitution  solely  on  the  ground 
that  French  and  German  are  useful  languages,  and  that 
thoroughness  is  less  essential  than  facility,  I  have  only 
to  repeat  that  the  college  is  not  a  vocational  school,  and 
that  mastery  of  one's  mental  processes  is  more  important 
than  fulness  of  knowledge  and  ease  of  expression.  "  There 
is  love  of  knowing  without  the  love  of  learning,"  said 
Confucius;  "the  beclouding  here  leads  to  dissipation  of 
mind." 

The  same  reply  can  be  made  to  those  who  complain 
that  too  little  attention  is  paid  to  the  sciences  in  our  col- 
leges. What  is  most  often  meant  is,  that  the  instruction 
has  in  it  too  little  of  practical  value.  Modern  life  is  set  in 
the  midst  of  a  vast  laboratory.  One  must  blunder  at 
every  point  who  fails  to  understand  scientific  method. 
The  scientific  way  of  looking  at  things  is  essential  to  the 
student.  It  is  of  almost  equal  importance  to  the  business 
man  and  to  the  man  of  affairs.  It  is  called  into  requisition 
in  almost  every  successful  enterprise.  It  ought  to  be 
applied  to  the  consideration  of  most  political  questions. 
The  problems  of  society  and  government  are  not  to  be 
solved  without  weighing  the  scientific  facts  involved, 
in  a  ocientific  way.  In  all  these  relations,  however,  com- 
pleteness of  knowledge  and  expert  skill  can  be  left  to  the 
few  who  intend  to  pursue  scientific  work  as  a  vocation;  but 
familiarity  with  scientific  method  is  essential  to  all  who 
pretend  to  positions  of  responsibility  in  any  field.  It 
should,  therefore,  be  the  aim  of  the  college  to  train  the 
mind  of  every  student  in  this  method  of  thinking,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  to  make  him  familiar  with  the  common 
data  and  the  underlying  principles  of  the  sciences. 

The  eagerness  of  our  students  to  get  into  the  thick 
of  things  as  quickly  as  possible  is  typical  of  American  life. 
We  would  be  masters  without  serving  an  apprenticeship. 
We  would  solve  age-long  problems  overnight.  The  college 
student  finds,  for  example,  the  principles  of  political 

42 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

economy  irksome.  He  would  plunge  at  once  into  the  midst 
of  questions  that  are  taxing  the  powers  of  the  most  exper- 
ienced. What  men  are  doing  and  thinking  to-day  is  useful 
as  illustrative  matter  for  undergraduates;  but  it  must  be 
carefully  distinguished  from  that  which  is  finished,  or  so 
far  finished  as  to  be  measurable.  The  unknown  quantity 
in  political  and  social  problems  is  human  nature,  and 
experience  is  its  best  measuring-rod.  Lack  of  experience 
and  ignorance  of  human  nature  are  as  fatal  to  good  govern- 
ment as  the  prejudices  of  self-interest,  and  the  college 
student  is  as  ill-equipped  in  this  direccion  as  he  may  be 
well  informed  concerning  fundamental  principles. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  program  for  the 
college  leaves  no  place  for  the  development  of  ripe  scholar- 
ship and  the  refinements  of  culture.  So  far  as  the  faculty 
members  are  concerned,  the  necessity  of  beginning  at  the 
beginning  with  each  generation  of  students,  and  directing 
them  with  patience  over  familiar  paths,  does  not  prevent 
advanced  work.  Indeed,  one  cannot  keep  alive  to  the 
particular  subject  he  is  teaching,  unless  he  carries  on 
work  in  his  own  field  beyond  that  which  is  suitable  for  the 
undergraduate.  This  is  doubtless  far  easier  to  do  in  a 
university  where  one  finds  opportunity  to  try  out  the 
results  of  his  work  in  the  graduate  school  and  feels  the 
stimulus  of  the  larger  group  of  men  occupied  with  advanced 
subjects.  But  the  highway  of  scholarship  touches  the 
world  at  all  points,  and  he  who  chooses  may  take  the 
product  of  his  labor  to  what  market  he  will. 

In  the  case  of  the  undergraduate,  the  incentive  to 
push  beyond  the  minimum,  or  even  the  maximum,  re- 
quirements of  the  curriculum,  will  always  exist  where  the 
elder  members  of  the  community  possess  the  qualities 
of  leadership  and  are  progressive  men.  When  this  fortu- 
nate condition  exists,  the  lecture  plays  an  important  part. 
Large  bodies  of  students  may,  with  the  least  waste  of 
time  and  effort,  be  shown  the  broader  aspects  of  a  subject, 

43 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

and  its  relation  to  the  whole  field  of  knowledge.  More- 
over, the  lecture  loses  nothing  of  its  inspirational  value 
by  reason  of  numbers.  But,  as  a  means  of  training  the 
mind  and  strengthening  the  intellectual  powers,  the  lecture 
is  of  the  least  possible  value.  Nothing  can  take  the  place 
of  hard,  regular  work  on  the  part  of  the  student,  under 
the  personal  guidance  of  a  competent  instructor.  For 
certain  subjects,  I  am  convinced  that  no  better  method 
will  be  found  than  that  which  is  pursued  under  the  pre- 
ceptorial system  at  Princeton,  and  which  is  substantially 
the  method  of  the  great  teachers  a  generation  and  more 
ago.  It  makes  the  largest  possible  allowance  for  the 
personal  equation.  It  accommodates  itself  to  the  am- 
bitions of  the  scholar  and  to  the  necessities  of  the  man 
of  average  ability  or  poor  preparation.  It  is  an  effective 
means  of  binding  together  faculty  and  students,  and  makes 
plain  the  way  to  a  strong  common  life. 

The  requirements  of  the  curriculum  should  take  into 
account  the  several  kinds  of  men  who  come  to  our  colleges. 
They  may  be  divided  into  three  classes:  (i)  men  of  earnest 
purpose,  with  native  powers  of  unusual  character  and 
promise;  (2)  men  of  earnest  purpose  without  unusual 
native  powers;  and  (3)  men  who  may,  or  may  not,  be 
endowed  by  nature  with  special  gifts,  but  whose  most 
striking  characteristic  is  lack  of  earnest  purpose.  The 
men  who  compose  the  first  class  need  no  urging,  they 
stand  ready  to  seize  the  opportunities  held  out  to  them. 
They  do  not  rest  content  with  mere  pass-work  or  with 
minimum  requirements.  They  touch  college  life  on  all 
its  sides,  but  with  a  due  sense  of  proportion  in  its  several 
parts.  They  become  not  merely  well  trained,  but  highly 
cultivated.  They  carry  away  the  attainments  of  the 
scholar  to  the  enrichment  of  citizenship,  and  become 
leaders  among  men.  But  students  of  this  class  must  not 
be  left  to  supply  their  own  higher  intellectual  wants.  To 
require  them  to  continue  in  the  training-field  after  they 

44 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

have  gained  control  of  their  mental  powers,  and  are  well 
trained  in  the  use  of  the  intellectual  processes  and  principles 
of  the  several  fields  of  knowledge,  is  a  waste,  and  may 
easily  become  a  vicious  waste  by  destroying  purpose- 
fulness.  As  a  reward  of  merit,  men  of  this  class  should  be 
permitted  to  concentrate  upon  fewer  subjects  in  their 
last  two  years,  that  the  fruits  of  scholarship  may  be  secured 
to  them.  The  experiments  which  are  now  being  made 
to  adapt  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  systems  of  honor 
courses  to  our  use,  will  be  followed  with  lively  interest 
by  all  who  are  impressed  by  the  failure  of  our  colleges 
to  make  adequate  provision  for  men  of  scholarly  mind 
and  earnest  purpose. 

The  second  class  of  men  to  which  I  have  alluded  must, 
however,  not  be  neglected.  The  danger  attendant  upon 
the  introduction  of  honor  courses  is,  that  the  large  body 
of  men  of  earnest  purpose,  but  apparently  of  ordinary 
endowment,  will  receive  less  attention  and  inspiration 
than  at  present.  Any  system  which  neglects  the  training 
of  the  men  of  this  class  is  unsuited  to  our  American  needs, 
for  to  this  class  belongs  the  large  majority  and  by  it  the 
average  of  our  citizenship  is  determined.  As  a  class, 
these  men  will  not  become  scholars,  but,  by  association 
with  scholars,  they  may  cultivate  scholarly  tastes  and 
learn  how  to  appreciate  the  best  in  everything: — the 
beautiful  things  in  nature,  the  refinements  of  art  and  litera- 
ture, the  progress  of  nations,  and  the  achievements  of 
science.  Nor  will  this  equipment  be  to  their  own  ad  vantage 
only.  As  citizens,  they  will  aid  in  making  the  communi- 
ties in  which  they  live  better,  cleaner,  and  more  beautiful 
places.  Furthermore,  the  man  of  slow  development 
finds  his  place  in  this  class.  In  the  end,  he  may  outstrip 
his  fellows  and  make  a  larger  contribution  to  the  world 
than  the  most  brilliant  of  his  comrades.  To  neglect  his 
training  is  to  waste  some  of  our  very  best  material ;  for,  un- 
aided, such  men  may  not  find  themselves  until  it  is  too  late . 

45 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

But  it  is  of  the  third  class  that  I  wish  especially  to 
speak.  The  young  man  who  enters  college  and  remains 
there  without  discovering  an  earnest  purpose  to  be  the 
best  that  he  can;  to  do  his  part  to  the  best  of  his  ability; 
and  to  bear  his  full  share  of  responsibility,  ought  not  to 
be  in  college.  He  is  an  unprofitable  member  of  the  com- 
munity, and  is  likely  to  prove  unprofitable  as  a  citizen: — 
it  is  of  such  stuff  that  our  undesirable  citizens  are  made. 
He  may  be  brilliantly  endowed,  possessed  of  a  strong 
personality,  and  gifted  with  persuasive  powers  to  an  un- 
usual degree,  but  his  influence  is  bad,  if  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  his  brilliant  parts  cannot  be  imitated,  and  his 
faults  will  be.  Usually,  however,  such  men  are  not  possess- 
ed of  gifts  of  a  high  order.  They  merely  appear  to  be. 
Frequently  they  are  good  fellows,  as  the  phrase  goes; 
but  to  be  merely  a  good  fellow  is  not  sufficient  to  qualify 
one  for  a  place  in  college.  In  the  language  of  the  campus, 
this  kind  of  a  man  is  a  loafer.  He  is,  however,  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  the  man  who  desires  to  apply  himself 
but  has  not  yet  learned  the  art,  and  from  the  intellectually 
one-sided  man  who  at  least  loafs  discriminatingly.  These 
two  need  training  and  friendly  guidance,  but  they  do  not 
lack  earnestness  of  purpose  or  force  of  will.  The  men  a- 
gainst  whom  we  should  close  the  doors  promptly  and 
effectually  are  those  who  loaf  because  they  choose  to, 
and  who  do  not  propose  to  change  their  occupation.  For 
the  college  to  do  otherwise,  is  to  foster  and  encourage 
qualities  most  hurtful  to  the  great  object  we  are  seeking 
to  accomplish. 

This  brings  me  to  the  question  of  the  development 
of  the  moral  and  religious  nature.  It  is  hardly  necessary 
to  say  that  this  means  more  than  mere  morality.  Our 
undergraduates  should  be  expected  to  lead  clean  and 
upright  lives  as  a  matter  of  course.  Clean  living  is  essential 
to  manliness,  and  uprightness  to  good  citizenship.  The 
virtues  of  a  good  citizen  in  a  republic  like  ours  are  not  to 

46 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

be  distinguished  from  the  virtues  of  a  good  man.  Aris- 
totle was  convincingly  clear  upon  that  point,  and  experience 
has  demonstrated  the  soundness  of  his  teaching.  But  a 
profounder  conception  of  citizenship  will  be  discovered 
when  we  base  it,  as  morality  itself  is  based,  upon  Christ's 
interpretation  of  the  law,  summed  up  in  the  most  luminous, 
the  most  inspiring  words  ever  spoken:  "Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind;  and 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  Without  love  of  this  kind, 
intellectual  endowment,  the  trained  mind,  and  the  most 
comprehensive  knowledge  are  nothing,  or  worse  than 
nothing.  Upon  these  two  commandments,  indeed,  hang 
all  the  law  and  the  prophets.  They  are  of  the  essence 
of  the  faith  of  western  civilization.  They  led  the  pilgrims 
across  the  sea  and  comforted  them  in  the  wilderness.  They 
directed  and  controlled  the  acts  of  the  founders  of  our 
several  commonwealths,  and  guided  the  f ranters  of  the 
Constitution.  Wherever  a  school-house  was  opened  in 
the  Colonies,  there  also  a  place  of  worship  was  established. 
Church  and  State  were  wisely  separated  as  organizations, 
but  they  were  firmly  united  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
of  each  community.  Upon  the  preservation  of  this  union 
depends  the  future  welfare  of  our  country,  for  through 
its  power  alone  can  the  great  body  of  our  citizens  be  lifted 
up  to  higher  planes  of  civic  life.  How  essential  it  is,  then,  that 
the  young  men  in  our  colleges  shall  be  trained  to  live  by 
the  light  of  these  commandments.  The  underlying  princi- 
ples of  the  Christian  religion  should  be  taught,  without 
limitation  of  sect  or  narrowness  of  construction.  Its 
literature  and  history  should  be  known  to  every  college 
man,  to  at  least  the  same  extent  that  the  literature  and 
history  of  other  great  world-movements  are  known. 

As  if  in  opposition  to  this  part  of  the  program,  one 
sometimes  hears  it  said  that  the  college  is  not  a  theo- 
logical seminary.  True;  nor  is  it  a  law  school,  nor  a  pro- 

47 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

fessional  or  vocational  school  of  any  other  kind,  as  already 
pointed  out.  Hence,  it  should  not  teach  theology;  but  the 
principles  of  right  living,  the  foundations  of  faith,  and  the 
place  and  influence  of  religion  in  the  world  are  principal 
subjects  in  the  field  of  philosophy.  To  omit  them  is  to 
ignore  the  vital  relation  existing  between  God  and  man, 
and  the  part  that  religion  and  religious  beliefs  have  played 
in  the  development  of  the  race.  To  fail  to  give  to  our 
young  men  a  sense  and  appreciation  of  the  dynamic  force 
of  religious  faith  in  the  progress  of  human  affairs,  is  to 
leave  them  ignorant  of  the  greatest  and  most  profound 
fact  in  history. 

If,  in  what  I  have  said,  I  have  seemed  to  some  of  you 
to  have  omitted  the  praise  due  to  this,  our  beloved  insti- 
tution, for  past  achievement  and  for  peculiar  fitness  to 
perform  her  part  of  the  supreme  duty  resting  upon  the 
American  college,  it  is  from  no  lack  of  appreciation  or 
affection,  but  rather  that  I  might  emphasize  the  universal 
character  of  the  obligation.  All  that  can  with  propriety 
be  said  on  this  occasion  is,  that  the  founder  of  Williams 
College  was  a  soldier-citizen,  who  shortly  before  his  death 
on  the  battlefield,  in  1755,  made  provision  by  will  for 
the  establishment  of  a  free  school  in  this  place,  and  that 
from  the  beginning  of  its  existence  until  now,  Williams 
College  has  taught  the  obligations  of  citizenship.  The 
greatest,  most  honored,  and  best  beloved  of  all  Williams 
teachers  made  clear  to  his  students  the  value  of  civil 
liberty  and  the  relation  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to 
the  State  and  to  the  progress  of  civilization.  He  rejoiced 
that  it  had  become  possible  to  instruct  a  whole  people 
concerning  the  end  of  government  and  the  ground  of 
human  rights.  "The  highest  earthly  conception,"  wrote 
Dr.  Mark  Hopkins,  "is  that  of  a  vast  Christian  common- 
wealth, instinct  with  order,  and  with  such  triumphs  and 
dominion  over  nature  as  modern  science  is  achieving, 
and  promises  to  achieve." 

48 


THE  CONFERRING  OF  DEGREES 

The  candidates  for  honorary  degrees  were  presented 
by  Professor  Rice,  as  follows: 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  LETTERS 

HENRY  PITT  WARREN,  graduate  of  Yale  College;  for 
thirty-five  years  head-master  of  the  Albany  Academy. 
This  Academy,  modelled  at  its  foundation  in  1813  on  the 
public  and  grammar  schools  of  England,  has  never  swerved 
from  the  traditions  of  those  schools,  fidelity  to  the  humani- 
ties. While  the  Empire  State  has  allowed  almost  every 
other  local  academy  to  succumb  to  the  high  or  boarding- 
school,  its  capital  city  still  supports  this  time-honored 
institution  with  confidence  and  liberality,  sensible  of  the 
quality  of  its  administration  and  its  output. 

ARTHUR  IRVING  FISKE,  graduate  of  Harvard  College, 
master  and  head-master,  for  the  last  thirty-five  years, 
in  the  Public  Latin  School  of  Boston,  the  oldest  school 
in  the  United  States  with  a  continuous  existence.  For 
age  unrivalled,  it  unites  with  age  a  continuous  mainten- 
ance of  classical  training.  From  its  foundation  in  1635 
to  the  present  day  Greek  and  Latin  have  been  required 
of  every  boy  for  entrance.  Another  no  less  valid  title 
to  fame  rests  on  the  fact  that  it  sends  more  boys  to  Harvard 
than  any  other  school  in  the  country.  Nor  is  this  title 
lessened  because  the  school  is  located  in  Boston.  The 
Latin  School  is  not  the  easiest  way  to  Cambridge. 

Whichever  claim  to  lasting  regard  be  thought  the  high- 
er, there  will  be  no  hesitation,  in  this  generation,  in  ascrib- 
ing the  prime  share  in  the  result  to  the  Head-master. 

FOR    THE    DEGREE    OF    DOCTOR    OF    DIVINITY 

FRANCIS  BROWN,  graduate  of  Dartmouth  College, 
Hebrew  scholar  and  professor;  Director  of  the  American 

49 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

School  for  Oriental  Study  and  Research  in  Palestine 
during  the  past  year;  now  elected  President  of  Union 
Theological  Seminary  in  the  City  of  New  York.  His 
relation  to  this  Institution  is  a  witness  to  the  progressive 
spirit  abiding  in  it:  his  election  a  mark  of  the  progressive 
fulfilment  of  that  larger  hope  cherished  by  its  late  presi- 
dent, Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall,  which  he  stated  in  these 
terms:  "To  preserve  forever  the  activity  and  efficiency 
of  the  Protestant  principle  of  liberty,  and  fearlessness 
in  the  pursuit  of  truth,  and  the  freedom  of  the  Spirit  in 
its  interpretation."  And  President  Brown  adds:  "Com- 
bining with  this,  loyalty  to  historic  Christianity,  while 
emphasizing  the  genuineness  of  Christian  experience 
and  the  importance  of  practical  service." 

As  once  in  days  of  gloom  Williams  College  showed  its 
estimate  of  values  by  especial  welcome  to  Dr.  Briggs,  so 
now  it  would  testify  again  to  its  faith  in  an  institution, 
which,  emerged  from  the  shadows,  is  revealed  steadfast 
in  the  liberty  for  which  Christ  has  made  us  free. 

FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  LAWS 

JACOB  GOULD  SCHURMAN,  graduate  of  the  University 
of  London;  since  1892  President  of  Cornell  University. 

There  are  doubtless  many  in  this  audience  who  can 
remember  the  distinct  shock  to  the  intellectual  conscious- 
ness of  the  East  given  by  the  founding  of  Cornell.  It  has 
taken  all  these  forty  years  for  some  to  recover  from  it, 
to  understand  the  seemingly  defiant  declaration  of  the 
founder  that  his  university  was  to  be  "  an  institution 
where  any  person  can  find  instruction  in  any  study." 
With  what  sneers  it  was  greeted,  with  what  contempt 
regarded  by  the  high  priests,  and  particularly  by  the  novi- 
tiate of  tradition!  And  when  fairly  launched,  what  diffi- 
culties combined  to  hinder  it!  A  State  university  without 
the  support  of  the  State,  it  had  even  to  create  the  schools 
which  should  supply  it  with  students.  Yet  to-day,  who 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

will  deny  that  the  dream  of  the  founder  is  nearing  fulfil- 
ment, that  Cornell  has  rightfully  won  triumphs  elsewhere 
than  at  Poughkeepsie  ?  The  present  administration  has, 
in  loyalty  to  the  ideals  of  the  founder,  enlarged  the  oppor- 
tunities, and  advanced  steadily  toward  the  realization 
of  that  novelty  in  education,  a  people's  university. 

CHARLES  RICHARD  VAN  HISE,  graduate  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin;  Geologist  and  Metallurgist,  Professor 
and  Author,  now  President  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, — 
a  State  institution  that  can  rightly  be  regarded  as  a  model 
of  its  class.  There  may  be  some  difference  of  opinion 
between  you,  sir,  and  two  of  your  neighbors  on  this  plat- 
form as  to  which  sort  of  university  exercises  the  widest 
and  most  beneficent  influence,  which  is  most  truly  national, 
or  typical  of  the  American  mind.  They  must,  however, 
agree  that  it  will  be  through  you  and  your  university  that 
efficient  aid  will  be  given  in  the  solution  of  a  problem  that 
engages  the  attention  of  the  educational  world:  "Whether 
the  applied  sciences  shall  win  for  themselves  positions  in 
it  as  studies  in  the  liberal  arts." 

GEORGE  HARRIS,  graduate  of  Amherst  College;  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Andover;  since  1899 
President  of  Amherst  College,  which,  founded  in  1821, 
began  its  existence  in  a  somewhat  unusual  feeling  of  hospi- 
tality toward  this  institution.  The  first  article  of  its 
charter  provided  for  the  incorporation  of  Williams  College 
with  it  whenever  its  Trustees  should  decide  to  remove  this 
College  into  the  vicinity  of  Amherst.  Its  first  president 
was  the  then  President  of  Williams,  and  he  took  along  with 
him  such  students  as,  despairing  of  the  future  of  the  Berk- 
shire institution,  desired  a  better  county — if  not  a  heavenly. 

The  century  has  proved  beyond  doubt  that  there  has 
been  ample  room  in  western  Massachusetts  for  two  insti- 
tutions with  similar  aims  and  methods,  while  incipient 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

regrets  and  jealousies  have  faded  in  the  strengthening  of 
a  generous  rivalry. 

EDWARD  ANDERSON  ALDERMAN,  graduate  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  North  Carolina;  President  of  the  same,  1896- 
1899;  of  Tulane  University  1899-1904;  in  the  latter  year 
called  to  be  the  first  President  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, founded  in  1819  by  Thomas  Jefferson.  Here  was 
established  at  the  outset  a  freedom  of  elective  studies  un- 
known at  the  time  in  any  other  institution  in  the  country. 
A  chief  distinction  of  the  University  has  ever  been  the 
example  of  an  honor  system,  and  this  has  eventually 
brought  to  Williams  College  what  she  to-day  counts  as 
one  of  her  most  valued  possessions.  To  the  Presidency 
of  this  university  Dr.  Alderman  "  has  brought  his  zeal  for 
democracy,  his  genuine  understanding  of  the  Southern 
life,  his  sympathy  for  the  people  and  their  aspirations  for 
culture  and  power." 

NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER,  graduate  of  Columbia 
University,  chosen  to  be  its  President  in  January,  1902, 
under  whose  administration  it  continues  to  be  "a  school 
of  thorough  intellectual  training,  whose  chief  and  permanent 
value  to  the  city  lies  in  the  constant  witness  it  bears  to 
the  usefulness  and  the  nobility  of  the  intellectual  life." 
At  home  and  abroad  it  is  recognized  as  a  public  servant, 
striving  to  fulfil  to  the  utmost  "  its  possibilities  in  the  edu- 
cation of  future  citizens,  who  shall  be  fitted  to  serve  their 
fellow-citizens  and  the  State:  striving  also  to  utilize  for 
educational  purposes  not  only  the  resources  of  the  Uni- 
versity itself,  but  the  countless  other  educational  resources 
of  the  metropolis." 

There  are  beyond  question  problems  in  the  admini- 
stration of  Columbia  known  to  few  if  any  of  her  sister  uni- 
versities. To  keep  her  true  to  inherited  responsibilities 
and  unspotted  from  the  world,  yet  an  active  force  in  the 

52 


life  of  such  a  city  as  New  York,  is  indisputable  evidence 
of  the  possession  of  talents  of  no  common  order. 

WOODROW  WILSON,  graduate  of  Princeton  College; 
President  of  Princeton  University  since  1902. 

The  date  of  the  founding  of  Princeton  College  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  a  fair  expanse  of  what  is  popularly 
known  as  history  must  lie  between  it  and  this  celebration, 
but  when  the  modern  passion  for  marking  epochs  shall 
attack  it,  a  clearly  dividing  line  will  be  drawn  in  1902. 
The  historian  of  this  latter  epoch  will  not  fail  to  signalize 
a  new  departure  in  university,  or  rather  college,  education, 
which  is  working  a  revolution  in  the  undergraduate  life 
of  Princeton.  It  may  be  too  soon  to  predict  with  confidence 
the  entire  effect  of  this  departure  known  as  the  preceptorial 
system,  that  is  being  watched  with  keen  interest  by  the 
college  world,  but  "it  has  already  produced  more  and 
better  work:  it  has  begun  to  make  reading  men,  and  it  has 
brought  teachers  and  pupils  into  intimate  relations  of 
mutual  interest  and  confidence :  it  already  shows  interesting 
results  in  the  new  attitude  of  the  undergraduates,  in  the 
increased  ability  to  study,  and  in  the  intelligence  of  approach 
and  facility  in  work." 

To  have  won  even  a  reluctant  consent,  to  have  secured 
the  means  for  the  trial  of  a  scheme  involving  such  enorm- 
ous outlay,  as  surely  marks  a  new  epoch,  as  it  bears  witness 
to  serene  faith,  constructive  imagination,  and  creative 
genius. 

ARTHUR  TWINING  HADLEY,  graduate  of  Yale  College; 
in  1899  elected  President  of  Yale  University. 

There  is  no  one  familiar  with  the  early  history  of 
Williams  College  who  has  not  recognized  its  dependence 
upon  Yale,  — I  would  rather  say  its  intimate  relation  with 
Yale  in  its  beginning — a  relation  which  might  truly  be 
characterized  by  the  term  foster-parent  and  foster-child. 

53 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

Williams  has  drawn  presidents  and  professors  from  this 
her  ancestral  house;  she  has  also  found  in  Yale  a  spiritual 
supply.  This  may  seem  to  some  to  have  shown  itself  only 
in  the  matter  of  policy,  discipline,  or  method  of  instruc- 
tion, but  beneath  these  external  manifestations  there  has 
been  a  recognition,  an  appropriation  of  what  Mr.  Justice 
Brewer,  at  the  20oth  anniversary  celebration,  character- 
ized as  the  spirit  of  Yale,  to  make  education  the  means  of 
service  rather  than  of  power.  Through  this  intellectual 
kinship  Williams  has  come  to  know  that,  in  the  words  of 
Mr.  Hadley's  inaugural  address,  "  she  must  evoke  in  the 
whole  body  of  her  students  and  Alumni  that  wider  sense 
of  their  obligation  as  members  of  a  free  commonwealth, 
which  the  America  of  the  zoth  century  requires." 

ABBOTT  LAWRENCE  LOWELL,  graduate  of  Harvard 
College,  Trustee  of  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston,  Pro- 
fessor of  the  Science  of  Government  in  Harvard  University, 
an  institution  which,  with  a  history  stretching  over  two 
hundred  and  seventy-two  years,  leans  less  on  its  past  than 
many  a  younger  one.  Its  attitude  is  rather  that  of  the 
athlete  pressing  forward  towards  a  goal  as  yet  unattained, 
but  clearly  discerned. 

Harvard  is  not  merely  the  gracious  mother  of  liberal 
education  in  America. 

"  Age  cannot  wither  her,  nor  custom  stale 
Her  infinite  variety." 

She  asserts  no  infrequent  claim  to  leadership,  and  she 
has  generally  made  good  that  claim.  The  breadth,  not 
only  of  her  endeavor  but  of  her  realized  purpose,  interprets 
to  America  the  meaning  of  a  university. 

The  Right  Honorable  JAMES  BRYCE,  Ambassador 
Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  Great 
Britain  to  the  United  States  of  America. 

54 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

There  can  be  no  need  at  this  moment  to  set  forth  the 
incidents  in  your  diplomatic  career  which  the  citizens 
of  this  country  have  long  been  following  with  admiring 
interest,  but  on  this  occasion  we  cannot  fail  to  recall  your 
connection  with  the  University  of  Oxford  as  Regius  Pro- 
fessor of  Civil  Law. 

Your  presence  here  revives  thus  in  no  unreal  way  the 
historic  background  of  all  New  England  colleges.  That 
connection  had,  however,  issue  of  more  vital  importance 
than  the  furnishing  of  brilliant  decoration  to  a  local,  I 
might  say,  provincial,  assembly,  for  it  was  under  the 
impulses  and  responsibilities  of  that  professorship  that 
you,  a  second  Columbus,  crossed  the  sea  to  discover,  to 
the  surprise  and  profit  of  all  English-speaking  peoples,  nay, 
of  the  civilized  world,  "The  American  Commonwealth." 

His  Excellency,  CURTIS  GUILD,  JR.,  Governor  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

Williams  College  would  gratefully  acknowledge  the 
courtesy  which  prompted  you  to  respond  to  an  invitation 
from  the  confines  of  your  province.  It  is  also  meet  that  on 
this  occasion  she  pay  due  recognition  to  the  authority  that 
legalized  her  existence,  and,  together  with  the  power  of 
conferring  degrees,  gave  aid  and  comfort  in  days  of  affliction. 
Williams  College  is  proud  of  Massachusetts.  Her  loyalty 
is  unquestioned.  In  loyalty  and  pride  she  offers  to-day 
her  highest  degree  to  him  who,  graduated  at  Harvard 
College  in  1881  with  the  highest  honors,  has  since,  as  citizen, 
as  soldier,  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  highest  office  of  a  sover- 
eign State,  borne  unfailing  witness  to  the  best  traditions 
of  his  Alma  Mater  and  the  intellectual  life. 

ANNOUNCEMENT    BY    THE    PRESIDENT 

I  regret  to  announce  that  Mr.  Stephen  Carlton  Clark 
is  detained  at  home  by  illness — fortunately  not  serious. 
It  has  been  suggested  by  the  donors,  of  whom  Mr.  Clark 

55 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

is  one,  that  under  the  circumstances  the  dedication  exer- 
cises at  the  new  building  be  omitted,  and  that  no  formal 
addresses  of  presentation  and  acceptance  be  made.  It  is 
fitting,  however,  and  within  the  spirit  of  this  request,  that 
I  voice  the  sentiment  of  the  College  by  an  expression 
of  appreciation.  The  inscription  upon  the  tablet  placed 
in  the  main  hall  of  the  new  building  tells  of  the  gift 
with  pleasing  directness  and  simplicity.  It  reads: 

THIS  BUILDING  REPLACES 
THE  ORIGINAL  STRUCTURE 

ON  ANOTHER  SITE 

WHICH  TOGETHER  WITH  THE 

WILDER  CABINET 

WAS  THE  GIFT  TO 

WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

IN  1882  OF 
EDWARD  CLARK  LL.D. 

ALUMNUS  1831 
TRUSTEE  1878-1882 

REBUILT 

BY  HIS  FOUR  GRANDSONS 

AND  THEIR  MOTHER 

IN  1908 

The  President  and  Trustees  of  Williams  College  accept 
the  gift  gratefully  and  will  preserve  it  faithfully,  for  it  is 
a  memorial  of  affection  for  one  who  held  his  Alma  Mater 
in  thoughtful  remembrance. 

But  it  is  something  else  also.  It  provides  the  depart- 
ment of  geology  with  a  delightful  and  commodious  home, 
admirably  arranged  and  fully  equipped.  It  is  an  appropri- 
ate memorial,  an  effective  building,  and  an  harmonious 
member  of  the  group  on  West  College  Hill. 

56 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

By  the  good  use  we  make  of  the  gift  we  hope  to  justify 
the  generosity  of  the  donors. 

BENEDICTION  BY  THE  REVEREND  DR.  ADAMS 

The  Lord  bless  you  and  keep  you.  The  Lord  make  his 
face  to  shine  upon  you  and  be  gracious  unto  you.  The  Lord 
lift  up  his  countenance  upon  you  and  give  you  peace.  Amen. 

The  church  was  filled  to  overflowing,  and  there  was  no 
lack  of  enthusiasm  and  applause  during  the  exercises. 
A  pleasant  and  interesting  feature  of  them,  when  one  re- 
calls the  curiously  related  histories  of  Amherst  and  Will- 
iams, was  the  spontaneous  and  prolonged  cheers  which 
greeted  President  Harris  of  Amherst  when  he  rose  to 
receive  his  degree.  It  was  a  sincere  and  unmistakable 
demonstration  on  the  part  of  Williams  men  in  honor  of 
their  long-time  rivals. 


57 


THE  LUNCHEON 

A  lunch  was  given  in  Lasell  Gymnasium  at  the  close 
of  the  exercises  of  the  induction,  and  was  attended  by  six 
hundred  Alumni  and  guests.  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  LL.D. 
'67,  presided.  With  him  at  the  table  of  honor  on  the  plat- 
form sat  President  Garfield,  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
Ambassador  Bryce,  President  Eliot  of  Harvard,  President 
Alderman  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  President  Van 
Hise  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  President  Butler  of 
Columbia  University,  ex-President  Carter,  Francis  Lynde 
Stetson,  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Adams.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  repast,  which  was  enlivened  by  songs  and  by  class 
cheers  for  President  Garfield, — a  large  company  of  ladies 
had  meanwhile  occupied  the  galleries, — Mr.  Mabie  rose  and 
spoke  as  follows: 

ADDRESS    OF    MR.    MABIE 

I  don't  know,  Mr.  President,  Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Am- 
bassador, Guests,  Alumni,  and  Friends  of  the  College, — 
I  don't  know  how  oppressed  Dr.  Garfield  may  have  felt 
by  the  responsibility  of  his  position  when  he  came  here, 
but  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  he  has  been  consider- 
ably cheered  since  then.  Certainly  no  man  could  enter 
upon  this  difficult  position  under  happier  auspices  than 
he.  The  day  itself  could  not  have  been  fairer,  nor  could 
the  mountains — of  which  Emerson  said  that  their  names 
ought  always  to  be  included  in  the  list  of  the  Faculty 
because  they  are  among  our  greatest  teachers — have  pre- 
sented themselves  in  more  friendly  aspect.  He  has  been 
inaugurated  in  the  presence  of  his  own  family,  happily 
continuing  to  the  second  generation  the  distinction  of 
the  earlier  generation;  in  the  presence  of  innumerable 
friends, — who  is  not  his  friend? — in  the  presence  of  a  great 
body  of  alumni  who  are  to  become  his  friends  if  they  have 

58 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

not  already  established  that  relation  with  him,  and  in  the 
presence  of  this  noble  group  of  educators  from  all  over  the 
country.  He  comes  at  a  happy  hour,  after  two  admini- 
strations which  have  put  the  College — I  think  I  may  say 
even  in  this  presence — in  the  forefront  of  American  col- 
leges. First,  the  genial,  kindly,  wise,  devoted  admin- 
istration of  President  Henry  Hopkins.  I  shall  always 
think  of  him  as  he  spoke  two  years  ago  at  that  memor- 
able anniversary  of  the  Haystack  Meeting  in  the  Chapel, 
with  the  eloquence  of  perfect  simplicity  and  sincerity, 
expressing  his  conception  of  religion  as  the  animating 
principle  in  a  man's  life,  free,  generous,  and  progressive; 
and  then,  again,  as  he  spoke  after  the  baccalaureate  sermon 
at  Commencement  those  few,  simple,  sincere  words  so 
full  of  the  heart  of  the  man,  of  his  beautiful  spirit,  and  of 
his  devotion.  He  passed  out  of  our  sight,  but  he  has 
passed  into  our  hearts.  His  life  is  part  of  the  spiritual 
endowment  of  the  College.  And  before  him  the  College 
enjoyed  twenty  years  of  the  administration  of  President 
Carter,  who  brought  here  a  reputation  as  a  scholar,  and 
who,  during  the  term  of  his  office,  held  the  College  with  a 
firm  hand  to  the  ideals  of  character  and  conduct  and  in- 
tellectual life,  to  whom,  to  its  last  day,  the  College  will  owe  a 
debt  of  gratitude. 

Now,  in  due  course  of  the  proprieties  of  such  an  occasion 
as  this,  I  should  introduce  to  you  first  the  Governor  of  the 
Commonwealth,  and  next  the  British  Ambassador;  but 
both  of  these  gentlemen  have  no  relation  to  time-tables, 
and  with  characteristic  generosity  both  of  them  have  assign- 
ed their  places  in  the  due  order  to  others  whose  relation 
to  the  time-tables  is  intimate. 

We  are  to-day  fortunate  in  the  presence  of  a  group  of 
college  presidents.  Now,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
discoveries  which  a  student  makes  after  he  comes  out  of 
college  is  that  the  college  president  is  a  human  person. 
In  college  he  supposes  that  the  president  is  either  inhuman, 

59 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

unhuman,  or  superhuman.  If  he  tells  the  truth,  he  is 
always  regarded  as  tyrannical  and  cruel.  If  he  is  agreeable, 
he  is  always  denounced  as  a  person  whose  word  is  not  to 
be  depended  upon.  Every  college  president  has  to  choose 
between  these  alternatives.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  gentlemen, 
the  position  is  a  very  difficult  one,  and  as  we  discover  years 
afterwards,  a  college  president  shares  in  our  humanity. 

There  is  a  delightful  story  told  by  Mr.  Lowell  of  one 
of  President  Eliot's  predecessors.  This  old  President  of 
Harvard  College,  as  it  was  in  those  days,  had  noticed  that 
the  students  frequented  a  certain  tavern  in  great  numbers, 
and  he  made  up  his  mind,  after  expressing  that  insatiable 
curiosity  which  is  characteristic  of  college  administrators, 
to  discover  the  reason.  So  one  day,  during  recitation- 
time,  he  went  to  the  tavern,  sat  down,  and  when  the  pro- 
prietor came  to  him  said,  "  Mr.  So-and-so,  the  students 
come  here  in  great  numbers,  do  they  not?" — "Yes,  sir, 
they  do." — "Now,"  said  he,  "is  there  anything  that  they 
have  when  they  come  here?"  The  proprietor,  thinking 
that  the  president  of  the  college  knew  the  ground  on  which 
he  was  standing,  said  frankly,  "There  is."  The  president 
said,  "Will  you  bring  it  to  me?"  So  a  cup  was  brought 
to  him  filled — I  speak  subject  to  President  Eliot's  correc- 
tion— with  what  was  then  called  "egg-flip,"  not  known, 
I  believe,  to  modern  taste.  The  President  sipped  it  slowly 
and  with  evident  contentment,  and  then  called  the  pro- 
prietor again  and  said  to  him,  "  The  students  take  a  great 
deal  of  this,  don't  they?"  — "Yes,  sir,  they  do." — "Well," 
said  the  president,  "  I  should  think  they  would!" 

Now,  I  am  not  sure  that  any  academic  occasion  anywhere 
would  be  complete  unless  the  oldest  university  in  the 
country  were  represented.  Perhaps  you  noticed  to-day 
that  no  degree  was  conferred  upon  President  Eliot.  That 
was  because  Williams  College  was  the  first  college,  after 
President  Eliot's  inauguration  at  Cambridge,  to  confer 
an  honorary  degree  upon  him.  We  did  confer  an  honorary 

60 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

degree  to-day  upon  a  distinguished  Harvard  man,  Professor 
Abbott  Lawrence  Lowell.  Mr.  Bryce  has  written  the 
great  book  on  the  American  Commonwealth,  and  I  think 
ten  years  from  now  we  shall  all  be  agreed  that  Mr.  Lowell 
has  written  the  great  book  on  the  English  Government  and 
People. 

There  is  a  tradition  that,  in  the  old  days,  when  the 
President  of  Harvard  College  opened  the  chapel  exercises 
with  prayer,  he  always  prayed  "  for  Harvard  and  all  inferior 
institutions  of  learning."  Now,  whatever  we  later  and 
smaller  institutions  may  feel  about  the  superiority  of 
Harvard,  whose  achievements  and  leadership  we  are  all 
glad  to  recognize,  we  are  all  of  one  mind  with  regard  to 
the  position,  the  character,  and  the  distinction  of  the 
President  of  Harvard  College.  To  say  that  he  has  been  a 
leader  in  American  education  is  to  be  guilty  of  a  common- 
place; but  when  one  thinks  of  the  variety  of  his  interests, 
of  the  courage,  the  independence,  the  intelligence,  and 
the  positiveness  of  his  utterances,  one  understands  how  it 
is  that  he  has  become  a  kind  of  oracle  in  these  later  days, 
and  that  in  any  group  of  American  citizens  President 
Eliot  must  hold  a  conspicuous  place.  It  is  a  great  pleasure 
to  greet  him  here  on  this  occasion. 

SPEECH    OF    PRESIDENT    ELIOT 

President  Garfield,  Mr.  Toastmaster,  Alumni  of  Will- 
iams: We  have  all  been  rejoicing  to-day  at  the  congratu- 
lations heaped  upon  Williams  College  on  its  achieve- 
ment— the  achievement  of  the  College  in  procuring  for  its 
head  President  Garfield.  In  all  those  congratulations 
I  have  most  heartily  joined.  But  I  should  like  to  turn  the 
thing  about  a  little,  now.  I  want  to  congratulate  President 
Garfield  on  the  position  to  which  he  has  attained  in  Will- 
iams College.  I  want  to  congratulate  him  upon  his  enter- 
ing upon  the  calling  which,  to  my  thinking,  is  the  most 
delightful  in  the  world.  We  have  just  heard  of  some  of 

61 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

the  possible  drawbacks  in  that  calling,  and  one  of  the 
drawbacks,  perhaps,  is  that  odd  anecdotes  come  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  concerning  preexisting 
presidents.  But  on  the  whole  I  desire  to  testify,  out  of 
my  own  experience,  that  the  position  and  work  of  the 
president  of  an  American  college  is  the  most  delightful 
position  and  most  desirable  work  that  I  have  ever  heard 
of. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  a  permanent  position.  President 
Garfield  can  look  forward  to  thirty-five  or  forty  years  of 
steady,  persistent  labor  for  this  institution.  It  is  a  rare 
privilege,  that,  gentlemen,  in  this  world,  and  particu- 
larly in  this  American  world.  And  then,  he  will  come  in 
contact  always  with  human  nature  on  its  best  side.  That 
is  an  enormous  privilege.  Men  and  women  never  appear 
to  so  much  advantage  as  when  they  are  taking  counsel 
with  the  president  of  a  college  concerning  the  welfare  of 
their  sons.  I  congratulate  President  Garfield  that  he  can 
look  forward  to  many  years  of  such  delightful,  hopeful, 
encouraging  interviews. 

Then,  what  delightful  intellectual  contacts  with  the 
youth  of  the  college  this  position  affords!  Long  service 
as  president  of  a  college  is  perfectly  sure  to  make  a  man  an 
optimist  through  and  through.  He  will  become  perfectly 
convinced  of  the  good  in  human  nature,  overmastering, 
predominating  over  all  the  evil.  He  will  be  perfectly  sure 
of  universal  salvation,  simply  because  the  cases  of  ultimate 
character-failure  in  the  great  stream  of  educated  men  that 
flows  before  the  president  of  a  college  are  so  infinitesi- 
mally  few.  It  is  one  of  the  great  satisfactions  of  a  college 
president.  I  congratulate  you  on  it,  President  Garfield, 
beforehand,  that  when  you  see  young  men  slip,  fall,  give 
way,  sin,  you  may  know  that  almost  all  of  them  will  absolute- 
ly recover  within  your  knowledge.  Think  what  that  teaches 
about  the  salvation  of  the  human  race,  when  we  remember 
how  much  more  about  motive  and  the  inner  consciousness 

62 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

and  genuine  good-will  God  knows  than  any  of  us  can  know. 
I  say  the  president  of  a  college  is  happy  in  that  he  in- 
evitably becomes  a  convinced  optimist  with  regard  to 
human  nature. 

Again,  how  numerous  are  the  intellectual  contacts 
with  great  men,  with  remarkable  geniuses,  with  the  con- 
versational lights  of  the  time,  with  the  professional  lights 
of  the  time,  with  the  political  lights  of  the  time,  which  a 
college  president  enjoys!  I  was  talking  once  with  Dr. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  about  the  felicities  of  life,  and  he 
suddenly  said  to  me,  "  I  think  the  greatest  felicity  in  life 
is  an  abundance  of  striking  and  interesting  intellectual 
contacts."  Now,  that  is  what  the  president  of  a  college 
is  enjoying  all  his  life — a  multiplicity  of  most  interesting 
intellectual  and  moral  contacts.  It  is  a  most  inspiriting 
intercourse  with  mankind  which  all  of  us  in  this  calling 
have. 

Besides,  I  was  just  telling  President  Garfield  of  another 
great  pleasure  that  college  presidents  in  our  country  enjoy, 
and  that  is,  a  steady  intercourse  from  week  to  week  and 
from  year  to  year  with  a  small  group  of  men  who  are  abso- 
lutely devoted,  in  a  disinterested  way,  to  furthering  the 
work  of  the  college  and  to  supporting  him,  the  president. 
I  mean  the  executive  committee  of  such  a  college  as  Will- 
iams, I  mean  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  Coll- 
ege,— the  board  of  control  who  have  the  initiative  and  the 
control  of  the  property.  It  is  a  great  happiness,  a  great 
privilege,  for  the  president  of  a  college  to  have  this  steady 
intercourse  with  a  small  body  of  lovers  of  their  work  and 
of  the  institution  for  which  they  work.  It  is  a  great,  en- 
lightening, inspiriting  thing  to  work  for  love  with  lovers  of  a 
noble  object. 

Then  there  is  the  object  itself  to  which  President  Gar- 
field  is  going  to  devote  his  life.  He  told  us  this  morning, 
in  that  simple,  sensible,  courageous  discourse  of  his,  the 
object  for  which  he  was  going  to  work  in  Williams  College, — 

63 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

the  making  of  good  citizens.  Well,  many  men  have  said 
that.  It  is  said  in  almost  every  baccalaureate  sermon 
that  is  preached  before  colleges  and  universities  of  the 
country  every  year.  But  later  in  his  discourse  he  told 
us,  by  implication,  what  he  meant  by  a  good  citizen, 
He  meant  a  man  of  intellectual  resources,  of  intellectual 
powers  well  trained,  of  public  spirit,  who  loved  God  with 
all  his  mind  and  his  neighbor  as  himself.  Now,  that  is 
a  fine  definition  of  citizenship.  What  an  infinite  satis- 
faction President  Garfield  is  going  to  have  in  working 
thirty  or  forty  years  toward  that  ideal,  with  your  support, 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  flood  of  young  men  who  will 
pour  through  this  College !  Is  there  a  nobler  or  more  satis- 
fying function  in  the  world? 

I  congratulate  President  Garfield  on  what  he  has 
attained  to  already,  and  on  his  prospects  of  usefulness 
through  what  we  hope  will  be  a  long  life. 

MR.  MABIE: 

What  is  more  interesting  than  the  contrast  between 
different  points  of  view?  I  could  not  help  recalling,  as 
President  Eliot  enumerated  the  felicities  of  the  college 
president,  what  the  Duke  of  Wellington  said  about  his 
position  as  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Oxford.  He 
said  that  his  great  objection  was  that  it  exposed  him  un- 
duly to  literary  persons! 

Our  narrow  definition  of  public  life  has  visibly  widened 
during  the  past  few  years.  Not  long  ago  we  thought  that 
the  only^mblic  man  was  the  man  in  politics.  We  have  come 
to  see,  as  Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale  pointed  out  years  ago, 
that  every  man  who  contributes  to  the  life  of  the  nation, 
and  every  man  who  anywhere,  in  any  field,  defines  its 
ideal,  is  a  public  man.  I  am  going  to  introduce  to  you  one 
of  the  leading  public  men  of  the  United  States.  A  few 
years  ago,  a  little  group  of  men  in  the  University  of  North 
Carolina — and  as  I  think  of  it  I  can  see  Chapel  Hill  and 

64 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

hear  the  mocking-birds,  as  Dr.  Alderman  has  often  heard 
them,  singing  there  in  the  moonlit  nights  of  April  and 
May — became  oppressed  by  the  illiteracy  of  that  state 
and  banded  themselves  together,  with  the  zeal  of  apostles, 
to  preach  education.  North  Carolina  had  objected  ever 
since  the  Revolution  to  being  taxed,  and  it  objected 
especially  to  being  taxed  for  school  purposes.  Somebody 
has  said  that  the  ideal  taxation  is  to  secure  "  the  maximum 
of  feathers  with  the  minimum  of  squawk."  In  North 
Carolina  it  was  all  "squawk"  and  no  feathers.  Now,  this 
little  group  of  men,  of  whom  Dr.  Alderman  was  one  of 
the  leaders,  entered  upon  a  campaign  of  education.  They 
spoke  with  tireless  energy  and  with  growing  eloquence  in 
every  school-house  of  the  state  and  at  all  the  four  corners 
of  the  roads.  It  was  a  hand-to-hand  campaign.  They  not 
only  awoke  North  Carolina,  but  they  awoke  the  whole 
South,  and  the  result  has  been  that  educational  movement 
which  is  to-day  not  only  the  real  reconstruction  of  the 
South,  but  one  of  the  most  inspiring  tendencies  and  move- 
ments of  American  life.  Dr.  Alderman  was  first  President 
of  his  own  Alma  Mater,  afterwards  President  of  Tulane 
University  at  New  Orleans, — that  delightful  institution 
in  that  most  delightful  city, — and  is  President  now,  and 
the  first  President,  of  the  University  of  Virginia; — and  if 
any  of  you  think  that  is  an  easy  undertaking,  you  don't 
know  Virginia.  In  Charlottes ville  you  must  always  be 
careful  to  say  "  Monticello,"  and  you  must  always  say 
"Mr.  Jefferson,"  and  there  are  many  other  things  that 
you  must  do.  No  college  is  more  beautiful  than  the  uni- 
versity, as  it  spreads  its  white  columns  in  the  moonlight 
encircling  that  beautiful  lawn,  and  yet  I  should  venture 
to  say,  if  we  did  not  have  reporters  present,  that  I  doubted 
whether  any  position  could  have  been  more  difficult  than 
that  to  which  Dr.  Alderman  went.  The  first  time  that 
I  went  there,  after  he  was  there,  three  years  ago,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  attending  a  meeting  of  protest  held  by  the  stud- 

65 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

ents  on  the  steps  of  the  library.  They  had  been  in  a  state 
of  great  destitution  in  the  matter  of  quarter-backs.  They 
were  about  to  have  a  critical  game,  when  one  of  the  best 
quarter-backs  in  the  country  arrived  at  the  college.  He 
was  immediately  put  on  the  team,  and  all  the  university 
fell  on  its  knees  and  thanked  the  Lord  for  his  providential 
interposition.  Then  Dr.  Alderman,  who  had  just  come 
there,  and  whose  popularity,  based  on  his  character  and 
his  ability  and  his  eloquence,  was  a  great  asset  of  the 
university,  discovered  that  this  young  man  had  been  drop- 
ped from  another  institution, — whose  president  is  also 
here  to-day, — and  he  promptly  forbade  his  appearance 
on  the  eleven.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  the  thrill  of 
indignation  that  ran  through  the  institution,  and  the  elo- 
quence which  was  spouted  on  the  steps  of  the  library  that 
afternoon  revived  the  great  traditions  of  revolutionary 
and  forensic  ability  in  Virginia.  Dr.  Alderman  stood  firm; 
the  tide  rose  and  raged  and  sank  again;  and  then  all  the 
university  said,  "What  a  splendid  will  he  has!  How  he 
stands  by  the  standards!"  That  is  what  Dr.  Alderman 
has  stood  for  all  through  the  South.  I  want  to  introduce 
him  to-day  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  South  and  one  of 
the  foremost  public  men  in  America, — President  Alder- 
man of  the  University  of  Virginia. 

SPEECH    OF    PRESIDENT    ALDERMAN 

Mr.  Toastmaster  and  my  Fellow-Alumni  of  Williams 
College :  When  I  set  out  from  my  home  in  Virginia  to  this 
great  gathering,  I  set  out  with  a  peace  in  my  mind  which 
passeth  understanding;  for  there  is  no  such  peace  as  the 
peace  that  belongs  to  the  man  who  has  no  speech  to  make 
at  such  a  function  as  this,  or  who  has  made  his.  So  when 
last  evening,  at  a  late  hour,  I  received  a  kind  note  stating 
that  I  would  be  asked  to  speak  here  to-day,  while  I  appreci- 
ated the  privilege,  I  saw  that  peace  of  mind  take  wings; 
for  the  consciousness  that  you  have  a  speech  to  make,  as 

66 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

many  here  will  testify,  gnaws  at  your  nervous  system  like 
hunger  at  your  vitals.  I  well  know  that  it  is  commonly 
thought  of  a  Southern  man  that  he  is  a  silver-tongued 
orator,  just  born  so, — that  somehow  he  can  thrust  the 
right  hand  of  oratory  into  the  frock  coat  of  statesmanship 
and  eloquence  of  any  sort  will  gurgle  forth.  But  that  is  not 
my  condition,  and  I  am  always  reduced  to  the  necessity 
of  thinking  and  even  of  writing.  And  besides,  I  feel  to-day 
that  there  is  hardly  anything  worthy  left  to  be  said,  so 
much  that  is  worthy  has  been  said.  I  am  exactly  in  the 
condition  illustrated  by  that  story  you  may  have  heard  of 
the  somewhat  arbitrary  method  of  determining  the  nation- 
ality of  a  man  by  the  way  in  which  he  goes  out  of  a  trolley 
car.  If  an  Englishman  goee  out  of  a  trolley  car,  he  just  gets 
right  up  and  goes  right  out  of  the  car.  If  an  Irishman  goes 
out  of  a  trolley  car,  before  he  starts  he  looks  around  to  see  if 
he  has  left  anything.  If  a  Scotchman  goes  out  of  a  trolley 
car,  he  looks  around  to  see  if  anybody  else  has  left  any- 
thing. Being  of  Scotch  blood,  I  looked  around. 

I  should  be  lacking,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  proper 
feeling  if  I  did  not  give  expression  to  the  sense  of  distinction 
and  pride  that  I  have  in  being  of  this  noble  company  that 
is  gathered  here  to-day.  I  appreciate  the  honor  and  the 
courtesy  of  the  hour.  It  is  a  noble  distinction  to  be  wel- 
comed into  the  fellowship  of  the  life  of  Williams  College, 
and  it  has  been  an  inspiration  to  me,  as  to  each  one 
of  us,  I  dare  say,  to  stand  here  to-day  and  witness 
the  enthusiasm  and  devotion  of  men  to  an  ideal  and  to 
an  institution,  and  to  see  a  strong  man,  with  a  noble  name 
which  he  has  proven  himself  worthy  of,  dedicated  and  con- 
secrated like  a  high  priest  of  old  to  that  which  is,  as  Presi- 
dent Eliot  has  so  beautifully  said,  the  noblest  and  most 
delightful  service  that  men  can  engage  in. 

I  feel  that  I  must  bring  to  you  the  fraternal  greetings 
of  the  University  of  Virginia.  There  are  many  points  of 
likeness  and  of  unlikeness  that  come  into  my  mind  between 

67 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

that  institution  and  this.  Widely  separated  as  they  were 
in  the  circumstances  of  their  birth,  Williams  owed  its  origin 
to  a  masterful  religious  impulse  and  the  desire  of  far- 
seeing  and  righteous  men  to  better  the  social  life  about 
them;  Virginia  owed  its  birth  to  one  myriad-minded  old 
idealist  who  had  an  everlasting  faith  in  the  final  rectitude 
of  public  impulse  and  in  the  final  virtue  and  perfectibility 
of  men.  Virginia,  I  think,  was  the  first  deliberate  gift  of 
human  enthusiasm  and  of  democratic  idealism  to  the  nation 
and  to  the  century.  Behind  Williams,  then,  was  the  attain- 
ment of  the  Christian  ideal;  behind  Virginia,  a  hitherto 
undreamed-of  conception  of  civic  virtue;  behind  both,  a 
belief  in  men  and  a  faith  in  the  majesty  and  the  dignity 
and  the  power  of  knowledge. 

Williams  and  Virginia  are  alike,  too,  in  this:  they  are 
both  situated  away  from  the  great  tides  of  life,  away  from 
the  great  industrial  centres  of  our  time,  and  they  both  have, 
as  a  glorious  and  practical  asset,  a  certain  rare  and  noble 
beauty.  The  more  I  think  of  beauty  in  an  institution, — 
beauty  of  buildings,  beauty  of  architecture,  beauty  of 
scenery, — the  more  it  looms  up  before  me  as  a  practical 
spiritual  asset,  and  my  heart  goes  out  to  the  institution, 
no  matter  how  powerful,  no  matter  how  throbbing  with 
energy,  that  is  not  beautiful.  For  you  cannot  calculate, 
you  Alumni  of  Williams,  nor  can  the  Alumni  of  Virginia 
properly  calculate,  what  it  has  meant  to  you  or  to  the 
world,  in  the  storm  and  stress  of  life,  to  look  back  and  see 
the  college  with  all  its  pageantry  of  noble  hill  and  green 
grass, — to  see  it  in  the  witchery  of  white  winter,  in  the 
lustiness  of  spring,  and  in  this  solemn  time  when  the 
autumn  death  is  touching  its  leaves  with  gold  and  russet 
and  brown.  It  steals  into  the  imagination  of  men;  it 
grips  the  heart  of  men;  and  therefore  I  feel  that  Williams 
and  Virginia  unite  in  the  common  possession  of  that  most 
precious  thing — beauty. 

If  Williams   has  the  great  dignity  of  the   Haystack 

68 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

Meeting  investing  it  with  a  certain  spiritual  charm,  Vir- 
ginia has  the  dignity  of  having  established — and  is  now 
about  to  celebrate  its  semi-centennial — the  first  College 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  the  world.  The 
two  most  scholarly-minded  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
I  dare  say,  were  those  most  intimately  connected  with  the 
lives  of  Williams  and  the  University  of  Virginia. 

Now,  if  I  have  one  point  to  make  this  afternoon,  it 
is  this:  we  owe  much  to  a  group  of  men,  among  whom 
the  President  of  Columbia  is  a  foremost  figure,  who  are 
endeavoring  to  bring  about  a  certain  international  under- 
standing and  scholarly  sympathy  between  this  country 
and  the  other  great  collateral  nations  of  the  world.  I  am 
going  to  suggest  that  we  ought,  while  not  neglecting  that 
larger  idea,  to  look  a  little  nearer  home  and  carry  out  the 
principle  in  our  own  life.  I  hope  to  see  the  day  when  such 
exchanges  of  professors  as  now  go  on  between  America 
and  Europe  will  be  established,  at  least,  between  New 
England  and  the  South, — that  these  temporary  instructors 
may  remain  a  definite  length  of  time,  sufficient  to  teach 
what  they  have  to  teach  and  to  learn  what  they  ought  to 
learn.  And  I  am  going  to  suggest  that  it  would  be  a  good 
thing  for  this  nation  if  more  Northern  boys  came  South 
for  their  education,  and  preferably  to  Virginia,  and  more 
Southern  boys  went  North,  preferably  to  all  the  colleges 
represented  by  the  presidents  here.  I  believe  that  if  your 
Northern  professors  came  to  us,  they  would  teach  us  many 
things, — orderly  persistence,  scientific-mindedness,  techni- 
cal power,  and  many  other  phases  of  a  high  civilization. 
It  does  not  become  me  to  say  what  they  might  learn,  but 
I  believe  that  there  is  something  to  be  learned  of  a  people 
who  have  suffered  from  loyalty  to  their  ideals,  who  are 
homogeneous  in  blood,  and  who  exalt  personality  and 
honor  above  all  things  on  this  earth.  We  have  hitherto 
relied  for  understanding  on  the  tourist  or  the  commercial 
traveller  or  the  writer  of  impressions,  and  we  cannot 

69 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

afford  to  neglect  these  men;  but  what  we  want  to  do  is  to 
bring  youth  together  whose  hearts  are  young,  whose 
emotions  are  generous,  who  are  quick  to  receive  impressions, 
and  whose  feelings  are  such  that  they  will  be  enabled  to 
gain  a  splendid  vision  of  the  whole  land,  the  whole  nation, 
quit  of  all  the  memories  of  a  troubled  past  about  an  un- 
proven  theory  of  government,  and  now  at  last  marching 
all  one  way  to  the  music  of  national  progress  and  national 
righteousness. 

There  have  been  times,  gentlemen,  when  it  was  difficult 
for  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  to  speak  kindly  of  each 
other  or  to  think  kindly  of  each  other,  but  there  was  a 
time  in  the  far  past  when  they  could,  and,  to  use  an  old 
and  reverent  phrase,  in  the  providence  of  God  that  time 
has  surely  rolled  around  again.  For  many  generations 
these  people  have  misunderstood  each  other.  You  have 
all  heard  of  the  little  Southern  boy  who  thought  that 
"damned  Yankee"  was  one  word  until  he  was  fourteen 
years  old,  and  you  have  doubtless  heard  little  better  of 
the  New  England  boy  with  a  vague,  naive  conception  of 
a  Southerner  as  a  man  whose  simple  morning  breakfast 
was  a  cocktail  and  a  chaw  of  tobacco.  Or,  to  illustrate 
it  a  little  better,  I  think  I  will  venture  to  tell  a  story  that 
President  Wilson  told  me  last  night,  and  then  it  was  so 
good  he  told  it  to  me  again  this  morning.  I  asked  him  to 
tell  it  again.  In  fact,  I  don't  know  whether  I  ought  to 
use  it  or  not.  I  don't  know  what  the  ethics  of  other  men's 
jokes  is.  It  is  getting  to  be  dangerous  to  take  things  now- 
adays, especially  if  you  write  a  receipt  for  them.  I  can 
foresee  a  complete  separation  hereafter  between  larceny 
and  politics.  But  I  am  going  to  tell  this  story. 

A  Southern  man  comes  home  late  at  night,  and  his 
wife  meets  him  at  the  head  of  the  stairs  and  says,  "  John, 
what  time  is  it?"  He  says,  "  It  is  just  midnight."  But  at 
that  moment  the  clock  strikes  three,  and  she  says,  "Well, 
what  do  you  think  of  that?"  He  says,  "My  dear,  would 

70 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

you  believe  that  damned   Yankee  invention  against  the 
word  of  a  Southern  gentleman?" 

I  think  that  idea  obtains  in  many  places,  and  yet  I 
want  to  say  that  while  these  two  great  sections  have  som- 
times  faced  each  other  and  misunderstood  each  other,  I 
believe  at  heart  they  have  always  liked  each  other.  There 
has  been  a  sort  of  curious  interest  in  each  other,  like  that 
most  singular  of  all  reconciliations  that  occurred  when 
John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  their  last  days, 
found  it  possible  to  look  into  each  other's  faces  and  to  be- 
hold there  lineaments  of  dignity  and  grandeur  and  good- 
ness. Certainly,  no  sections  in  the  world  appreciate  each 
other's  approval  and  shrink  from  each  other's  disapproval 
as  do  these  two  sections.  When  a  man  like  Lamar  has  the 
courage  to  speak  of  the  royal  greatness  of  Charles  Sumner, 
or  a  Northern  man  like  Charles  Francis  Adams  has  the 
courage  to  speak  of  the  royal  greatness  of  Robert  E.  Lee, 
there  is  a  certain  fine  glow  of  approval  that  runs  through 
both  sections.  That  is  because  they  have  respect  for 
each  other,  and  respect  is  the  foundation  of  understanding 
and  of  appreciation.  They  are  very  much  alike,  and  I 
could  mention  many  likenesses.  There  is  a  moral  dignity 
which  belongs  to  both,  such  as  belongs  to  those  who  have 
not  acted  commonly  or  meanly  in  great  crises.  There  is 
a  notable  calmness  and  assurance  that  belongs  to  both, 
born  of  the  fact  that  they  have  acted  in  great  historical 
times  with  dignity  and  with  power.  Names  big  as  the 
earth  have  come  out  of  the  life  of  both.  From  each  have 
gone  swarms  of  colonists  to  build  new  states  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  in  the  great  West,  and  on  the  Gulf.  Great  builders 
of  states,  therefore,  both  of  them  are,  with  their  sons  looking 
back  to  them  as  mothers, — the  South  leading  in  pioneering 
and  New  England  following  with  institutions  of  orderly 
persistence  and  power.  This  nation  can  never  be  under- 
stood by  one  who  fails  to  reckon  with  New  England's 
philosophy,  with  her  educational  theories,  with  her  ability 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

to  translate  democracy  into  efficiency;  nor  can  it  be  under- 
stood unless  he  considers  the  simplicity  of  the  South,  its 
reverence  for  home,  its  pride  of  origin,  and  the  purity  of 
its  thought  about  government  and  the  state. 

And  so  my  prayer  for  Williams  College,  this  noble  and 
sincere  foundation  of  yours,  gentlemen  of  Williams,  is 
the  poet's  hope  that  she  may  mix  with  men  and  prosper; 
and  who  can  doubt  that,  with  such  a  leadership  and  with 
such  friends  as  have  revealed  themselves  here  to-day,  it 
will  prove,  as  President  Eliot  long  years  ago  said  in  his 
inaugural  address  when  he  began  that  career  of  service 
and  helpfulness  and  power  to  America  that  is  so  complete 
and  so  beautiful,  "  that  the  same  God  who  prompted  the 
fathers  to  create  will  give  wisdom  to  the  sons  to  preserve." 

MR.  MABIE: 

I  should  like  to  say  to  Dr.  Alderman  that  if  he  should 
happen  to  speak  here  again,  or  if  the  charm  of  Charlottes- 
ville  should  become  known  in  Williamstown,  in  case  of 
an  interchange  of  professors,  there  would  be  an  ava- 
lanche down  in  that  direction.  I  advise  him  to  go  slowly. 

I  should  like  to  say  one  word,  before  introducing  the 
next  speaker,  about  the  services  of  one  of  the  gentlemen 
who  received  their  degree  this  morning.  I  remember  that 
a  number  of  years  ago,  Professor  Bliss  Perry,  who  has 
made  Spring  Street  an  historic  highway,  and  who  passed 
by  way  of  Williams  and  Princeton  and  the  office  of  the 
"Atlantic  Monthly"  into  the  chair  of  James  Russell 
Lowell,  where  we  are  all  glad  and  proud  to  have  him  sit, 
said  that  the  campus  life  at  Princeton  was  far  too  pleasant. 
Now,  it  has  been  the  extraordinary  power  of  President 
Wilson,  without  diminishing  the  pleasure  of  the  campus 
life,  to  achieve  a  result  which  many  Americans  respon- 
sible for  colleges  had  believed  impossible.  He  has  made 
study,  if  not  popular,  at  least  necessary.  There  is  an  in- 
scription on  the  wall  of  a  student's  room  in  a  certain 

72 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

institution  not  far  from  the  place  where  Dr.  Eliot  lives, 
which  reads,  "  Study  is  not  allowed  in  this  room  to  interrupt 
the  regular  course  of  college  life."  President  Wilson  has 
restored  study  as  a  part  of  college  life  at  Princeton.  I 
should  like  to  say  to  you  to-day  that  I  think  he  has  rend- 
ered a  great  service  to  American  education;  he  has  rein- 
vigorated  the  will  and  the  purpose  of  a  great  many  boards 
of  trustees  and  faculties  everywhere  in  the  United  States. 
Every  American  who  keeps  himself  posted  with  regard 
to  educational  matters  knows  how  efficient  the  German 
university  has  been  in  the  last  twenty  years  in  furthering 
the  material  development  of  Germany, — how  it  has  allied 
science  with  business.  There  are  a  great  many  Americans, 
however,  who  do  not  know  the  extraordinary  complete- 
ness with  which  some  of  our  Western  state  universities 
serve  the  state.  They  do  not  know  how  intimately  those 
universities  have  united  themselves  with  the  public  life 
of  the  state  and  become  the  efficient  instruments  of  in- 
dustrial, creative  energy.  The  University  of  Wisconsin 
is  one  of  these  institutions.  Our  relations  with  it  have 
been  peculiarly  intimate.  We  have  given  it  two  presidents 
Dr.  Chadbourne,-one  of  the  most  versatile  and  energetic 
college  officers  that  we  have  ever  had,  and  Dr.  John  Bascom, 
one  of  the  most  inspiring  teachers  that  any  American 
college  has  ever  had.  I  am  sure  that  we  shall  all  be  glad 
to  take  this  opportunity  of  remembering  that  Dr.  Bascom 
has  just  celebrated  his  Both  birthday,  and  that  neither 
in  body  nor  in  mind  has  there  been  any  recession  of  that 
burning  energy  and  that  piercing  insight  which  made 
him  a  leader  in  our  thought  a  generation  ago.  Now,  it 
is  a  great  pleasure  to  introduce  to-day  the  President  of 
the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Dr.  Van  Hise. 

SPEECH    OF    PRESIDENT    VAN    HISE 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  did  not  know  that  there  was 
in  this  audience  another  gentleman  who  had  been  so  un- 

73 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

happy  as  I  have  been  for  the  last  dozen  or  fifteen  hours 
until  I  heard  President  Alderman  speak,  and  I  found 
that  there  had  been  another  man  in  like  plight.  I  also 
came  here  with  perfect  peace  of  mind,  and  found  that 
peace  very  rudely  disturbed  by  a  communication  which 
met  me  here,  saying  that  it  was  expected  that  I  should 
speak  briefly  to  you  this  afternoon. 

The  University  of  Wisconsin  has  been  very  highly 
honored  by  Williams  College  to-day,  and  as  I  have  sat 
here  to-day,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  it  was  an  additional 
bond  between  the  two  institutions,  of  which  there  are 
many  which  have  extended  through  a  great  number  of 
years.  Already  your  toastmaster  has  mentioned  two  of 
the  bonds  which  connect  the  institutions,  but  these  are 
only  two.  The  Dean  of  our  College  of  Liberal  Arts  is  a 
Williams  man,  and  he  has  persistently  maintained  at 
Wisconsin,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  the  spirit  of  Williams 
in  that  College  of  Liberal  Arts.  Many  of  our  professors 
are  Williams  men.  As  has  been  said,  Paul  Chadbourne 
was  President  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  before  he 
came  to  Williams  as  president,  I  believe,  and  for  thirteen 
years  John  Bascom  was  the  most  potent  spiritual  force 
at  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 

To-day  I  have  listened  with  great  delight  to  President 
Garfield's  address,  since  we  know  now  that  the  old  ideals 
of  Williams  are  to  be  retained  and  developed.  This  state- 
ment was  received  by  me  with  great  contentment,  being 
satisfied  with  the  product  which  you  have  sent  West.  At  the 
present  time,  the  chief  danger,  as  it  seems  to  me,  of  many 
colleges  is  that  they  are  aiming — or  a  great  many  of  them 
are  aiming — to  become  universities  and  to  undertake 
the  vocational  work  of  the  university.  President  Gar- 
field  has  announced  to  you  that  this  is  not  his  aim,  that 
Williams  College  is  not  to  enter  these  fields.  It  seems  to 
me  that  in  thL.  decisive  statement,  made  in  his  inaugural 
address,  he  has  shown  a  wisdom  and  a  courage  which 

74 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

few  in  a  similar  position  have  shown.  The  field  of  the 
College  of  Liberal  Arts  is  so  great  that  it  may  well  be  the 
ambition  of  any  institution  to  adequately  cover  that  field. 
Fifty  years  ago,  the  only  fields  of  the  college — or  practi- 
cally the  only  fields — were  the  languages,  literature,  and 
mathematics.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  the  rise 
of  a  great  group  of  pure  sciences,  which  have  been  so  form- 
ally and  strongly  treated  that  they  have  become  liberal 
arts,  and  there  has  arisen  the  great  group  of  the  humani- 
tarian sciences, — political  economy,  political  science,  and 
history, — which  again  are  the  field  of  liberal  arts.  Thus 
the  field  of  this  College  at  the  present  time  is  at  least  three 
times  as  broad  as  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  In  circumscribing 
the  work  of  Williams,  in  deciding  upon  this  field,  and  in  the 
determination  to  develop  the  work  along  these  lines,  with 
the  old  spirit, — the  spirit  which  has  obtained  here  for  a 
century, — is  the  great  opportunity  for  Williams.  Those 
colleges  which  attempt  to  become  universities  without  the 
resources  of  universities  are  unable  to  compete  satis- 
factorily along  the  vocational  lines,  and  at  the  same  time 
they  limit  themselves  in  this  great  field  which  is  their 
peculiar  possession. 

However,  I  can  say  to  President  Garfield  that  he  will 
require  firmness  and  strength  and  decision  if  he  is  to  carry 
out  his  program.  The  same  fibre,  however,  I  have  no 
doubt  will  appear  at  the  proper  time,  that  has  appeared 
this  morning  when  speaking  of  athletics,  and  when  speak- 
ing of  the  three  grades  of  students  and  the  undesirable 
group  that  he  does  not  care  to  have  at  Williams.  He  will 
have  great  need  of  fibre  to  hold  to  this  field.  Just  as  the 
college  president,  in  many  cases,  has  been  anxious  to  make 
the  college  into  a  university,  just  as  many  of  the  trade 
schools  that  were  founded  as  trade  schools  are  becoming 
colleges  of  engineering,  so  the  ambition  of  the  individual 
professor  will  appear  to  develop  his  department  into  the 
graduate  school  or  the  professional  school.  He  will  be 

75 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

asked  to  adjust  this  course  or  that  course  so  as  to  com- 
plete the  training  for  certain  degrees;  he  will  be  urged 
to  add  this  subject  or  that  subject  in  engineering  so  as 
to  make  the  student  further  advanced  in  engineering 
when  he  leaves  the  college;  he  will  have  a  similar  request 
with  reference  to  medicine, — just  this  subject  or  that 
to  be  added;  and  if  a  firm  hand  is  not  kept  at  this  point, 
Williams  will  find  herself,  despite  herself,  developing 
along  these  lines.  There  is  room  in  this  country  for  the 
college  and  for  the  university.  It  would  be  a  great  pity 
for  the  higher  educational  institutions  all  to  become  of 
the  one  class  or  the  other,  and  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me 
to  know  that  this  problem  has  been  clearly  thought  out 
by  your  president,  and  that  he  comes  here  with  a  fixed 
policy  in  reference  to  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  in  this  con- 
clusion which  he  has  reached  you  have  the  assurance  that 
Williams  in  the  future  will  play  an  even  larger  part  in 
the  development  of  high-grade  men,  who  will  influence 
the  development  of  other  educational  institutions,  and 
who  will  advance  the  naton  in  even  a  greater  measure 
than  in  the  past. 

This  is  the  opportunity,  the  glorious  opportunity,  of 
Williams  College, — the  great  enlarging  field  of  liberal 
arts.  I  hope  she  may  ever  hold  to  it. 

MR.  MABIE: 

On  a  certain  occasion  when  Rubens  was  fulfilling  an 
ambassadorial  function,  he  was  spoken  of  as  "  Hie,  Catho- 
lic Majesty's  ambassador  who  sometimes  painted." — 
"No,"  said  he,  "Rubens  the  painter  who  sometimes 
helps  His  Catholic  Majesty."  Now,  the  ambassador  whom  we 
have  with  us  to-day  not  only  represents  one  of  the  most 
capable  and  important  sovereigns  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ocean,  but  he  is  still  more  the  ambassador  of  the 
English  people.  In  fact,  we  have  claimed  him  long  as  one 
of  our  chief  ambassadors.  It  was  an  Englishman  who 

76 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

said  years  ago  that  the  most  remarkable  thing  about  the 
United  States  is  that  it  is  always  going  to  the  devil  and 
never  getting  there.  Mr.  Bryce  has  explained  why  it 
does  not  get  there.  So  much  has  already  been  said  to 
him  and  about  him  that  it  would  be  impertinent  and  out 
of  taste  for  me  to  add  another  leaf  to  the  crown.  It  is 
sufficient  simply  to  introduce  him  as  Dr.  Bryce. 

SPEECH    OF    AMBASSADOR    BRYCE 

Mr.  Toas'tmaster,  Mr.  President,  Your  Excellency  the 
Governor,  Fellow-Graduates  of  Williams  College:  The 
warmth  of  your  reception  both  in  the  church  some  two 
hours  ago  and  now,  for  which  I  thank  you  most  deeply, 
diminishes  the  timidity  with  which  I  would  naturally 
arise  to  address  a  few  words  to  you, — a  timidity  which  is 
only  natural  in  the  youngest  but  one  of  your  graduates, — 
for  Governor  Guild  is  still  my  junior, — and  which  has  been 
increased  by  the  fact  that  I  have  spent  the  whole  of  this 
forenoon  and  part  of  yesterday  evening  in  the  company 
of  a  group  of  those  who  inspire  me  with  the  greatest  awe, — 
I  mean  your  college  presidents.  You  have  heard  four 
or  five  of  them  this  morning  already.  Sydney  Smith  is 
reported,  on  one  occasion,  when  he  was  sitting  beside  a 
lady  at  dinner  whom  he  had  in  vain  endeavored  to  draw 
into  conversation,  to  have  said,  "  Madam,  I  perceive  that 
you  are  a  failure;  you  crumble  your  bread."  When  I  sit 
beside  a  bishop  I  always  crumble  my  bread,  and  when 
I  sit  beside  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  I  crumble  it 
with  both  hands.  I  have  been  crumbling  my  bread 
this  morning  in  the  presence  of  this  group  of  illustrious 
college  presidents,  for  whom  I  feel  a  reverence  which 
is  enhanced  every  time  that  I  come  to  a  college  gathering 
like  this  and  perceive  how  great  and  how  increasingly  im- 
portant is  the  place  that  they  hold  in  your  country.  I 
could  hardly  overcome  my  awe  of  them,  if  it  were  not 
softened  by  the  fact  that  personal  knowledge  of  those  in 

77 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

particular  whom  you  have  heard  this  morning  has  shown 
me  that  they  are  human  as  well  as  superhuman, — espec- 
ially superhuman  in  their  optimism,  and  human  in  the  very 
best  sense  of  the  word,  namely,  that  they  are  men  who  have 
learned  to  be  kindly  and  indulgent  as  well  as  discerning. 
Timidity,  however,  will  not  prevent  me  from  acknow- 
ledging my  thanks  in  the  most  hearty  way  to  you, 
the  President  and  Trustees,  for  the  honor  you  did  me 
in  conferring  a  degree  upon  me  this  morning,  making  me 
a  member  of  this  ancient  and  most  interesting  College, — 
a  College  which  has  not  only  the  interest  of  being  the 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  strong  minds  and  strong  wills 
of  rocky  Massachusetts, — which  always  reminds  me  of 
what  Ulysses  says  in  the  Odyssey  about  rocky  Ithaca: 
"It  is  rough,  but  it  is  a  fine  nurse  of  men"; — but  here 
you  stand  in  this  green  basin  encircled  by  richly  wooded 
hills,  among  the  memories  of  those  terrible  conflicts  which 
gave  North  America  to  the  British  race,  one  of  which  is 
commemorated  in  that  flagpole  and  elm  tree  which  stand 
on  the  site  of  the  old  fort  of  western  Massachusetts.  It 
is  a  great  thing,  gentlemen,  not  only  to  have  the  natural 
beauty  of  which  Dr.  Alderman  spoke,  but  also  to  have 
those  historical  associations  which  carry  you  back  to  the 
days  when  your  fathers  had  harder  work  to  do  than  teach- 
ing and  meeting  and  dining  together;  and  you  who 
have  entered  into  their  labors  must  be  thankful 
for  the  manly  spirit  and  the  courage  and  the  faith 
of  the  men  who  could  withstand  the  French  and 
the  Indians,  one  of  whom  could  see  that  the  time 
would  come  when  a  school  and  a  college  would  be 
needed  here,  and  who  made  his  bequest  in  1755  to 
found  that  which  you  are  now  enjoying.  You  may  all  be 
proud,  gentlemen,  to  be  members  of  such  a  college;  and 
I  am  glad  to  congratulate  both  the  College  on  having  as 
its  president  Mr.  Garfield,  and  Mr.  Garfield  as  being  Presi- 
dent of  Williams. 

78 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

I  remember  an  old  friend  of  mine  once  said  to  me, 
"  I  never  congratulate  an  acquaintance  who  is  going  to 
be  married  until  I  have  seen  the  bride."  And  here  I  am 
in  the  happy  position  of  knowing  both  the  bride  and  the 
bridegroom.  I  congratulate  you,  President  Garfield,  on 
having  this  College  as  the  ship  whose  helm  you  are  to  take, 
and  I  congratulate  the  College  on  having  as  its  president 
you,  who,  bearing  an  honored  name,  show  that  you  are 
sensible  of  its  responsibilities  and  mean  to  hand  it  on, 
with  a  further  lustre  gained  in  useful  educational  work, 
to  those  who  come  afterward. 

Gentlemen,  I  had  the  pleasure —  I  mention  it  because 
it  gives  me  a  sort  of  proprietary  right  in  your  president — 
of  knowing  Mr.  Garfield  more  than  twenty  years  ago, 
when  he  came  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  not,  indeed, 
to  become  a  permanent  member  of  that  university,  but 
drawn  by  its  fame  and  desiring  to  pass  some  months  of 
study  there  and  carry  away  some  recollections  from  it. 
I  thought  he  did  well  then  to  know  something  of  our 
English  university  life,  and  I  can  say  to  you  that  it  is 
very  inspiring  and  very  helpful  to  know  something  of 
your  university  and  college  life  also,  and  to  see  how,  by 
different  methods  and  yet  with  the  same  spirit,  we  are 
endeavoring  to  attain  the  like  goals. 

If  I  had  more  time,  I  could  willingly  talk  to  you  about 
some  of  the  curious  differences  which  strike  me  between 
your  college  life  and  ours,  and  one  of  them  which  I  should 
dwell  upon  is  the  different  position  occupied  here  by  the 
college  president,  to  which  we  have  nothing  in  England 
exactly  corresponding, — no  functionary  who  is  so  import- 
ant, no  one  from  whom  so  much  is  expected  in  so  many 
different  ways.  A  college  president  must  be  a  statesman, 
wise  and  tactful,  with  large  outlook  over  all  the  edu- 
cational problems  which  the  progress  of  the  years  brings 
up.  He  must  be  in  touch  with  his  trustees,  with  his  fac- 
ulty, with  his  alumni  over  the  country,  with  his  under- 

79 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

graduates.  He  must  know  enough  of  all  the  subjects 
taught,  not  only  to  know  how  the  curriculum  should  be 
constructed,  but  also  to  know  how  he  is  to  find  out  who  are 
the  best  men  to  be  selected  for  the  professorships.  He 
must  have  a  sane  judgment  of  practical  affairs,  a  judg- 
ment which  was  symbolized  by  the  delivery  to  you,  Mr. 
President,  to-day,  of  the  power  of  the  keys, — a  term  which 
has  carried  down  from  the  Middle  Ages  and  from  early 
Christianity  many  deep  significances.  And  the  college 
president,  with  all  these  functions  to  discharge,  with  so 
many  calls  made  upon  him,  with  the  growing  demands 
made  upon  him  to  deliver  his  opinions  upon  the  great 
questions  of  the  hour,  has  need  to  be  very  thoughtful  and 
a  large-minded  man.  I  think  you  could  see,  after  hearing 
the  words  that  fell  from  President  Garfield  to-day,  that 
in  him  you  have  such  a  man. 

Sometimes  it  has  occurred  to  me,  in  thinking  of  the 
place  which  college  presidents  have  come  to  hold  in  this 
country,  that  if  you  had  time  to  take  from  numerous 
other  questions  which  are  occupying  your  attention  to 
alter  in  any  way  your  Constitution,  you  might  create 
a  third  house  of  Congress,  and  it  might  be  composed  of 
the  presidents  of  the  great  universities.  It  would  be  a 
house  not  inferior  in  intellectual  distinction  to  either 
of  the  two  houses  into  whose  hands  you  now  confide 
your  destiny. 

Gentlemen,  one  thing  strikes  me  very  much  whenever 
I  return  to  America  from  England,  and  that  is  the  growing 
importance  that  universities  hold  in  your  country.  I 
don't  believe  there  is  any  country  in  the  world  where 
the  universities  are  so  important  a  factor  in  the  public 
life  of  the  country.  That  is  a  subject  which  it  would  be 
very  interesting  to  trace  to  its  causes  in  your  social  and 
intellectual  condition.  For  the  moment  I  must  be  con- 
tent to  note  that  it  is  a  singular  and  interesting,  and  I  think 
a  hopeful,  fact  that  in  no  country  do  universities  exercise 

80 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

so  great  a  power  as  they  do  here;  in  no  country  do  the 
universities  receive  within  their  walls  so  large  a  pro- 
portion of  the  population;  in  no  country,  therefore,  is 
university  influence  so  widely  diffused  and  does  the  edu- 
cated class  tend  to  become  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  popu- 
lation. Every  time  I  come  here  I  am  more  and  more 
struck  with  the  opportunity  given  to  the  universities  and 
with  the  intellectual  authority  they  exert.  This  cannot 
be  for  anything  but  good  to  you;  this  cannot  be  but  the 
augury  of  a  happy  and  blessed  progress.  It  is  one  of  the 
things  which  an  Englishman  sees  with  joy  when  he  comes 
to  a  country  in  whose  fortune  he  is  no  less  interested  than 
he  is  in  his  own.  May  I  venture,  gentlemen,  though  I 
have  no  commmission  to  do  so,  to  express  to  you,  on  behalf 
of  the  ancient  university  to  which  I  belong, — a  university 
whose  origin  we  do  not  know  because  it  began  so  far 
back, — may  I  venture  to  express  to  you  the  hearty  good- 
will which  the  members  of  that  ancient  university  feel 
for  the  colleges  and  universities  of  America,  and  our 
earnest  hope  that  they — and  Williams  College  in  the 
forefront  of  them — may  continue  to  discharge  for  the 
race  to  which  we  belong  such  functions  as  our  universities 
have  fulfilled  in  England  for  eight  centuries,  and  such 
functions  as  yours  are  now  fulfilling,  to  the  blessing  and 
profit  and  honor  of  your  country. 

MR.  MABIE: 

The  last  speaker  to-day,  gentlemen,  is  the  Governor 
of  the  Commonwealth.  It  is  entirely  in  the  order  of  fitness 
that  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  should  be  not  only 
a  college  man,  but  a  man  cultivated  in  all  the  generous 
arts.  I  am  told  that  he  especially  likes  to  go  to  Holy 
Cross,  because  there  the  study  of  Latin  is  alive  and  they 
understand  his  quotations.  Now,  I  want  to  say  to  him 
that  if  he  chooses  to  quote  Latin  this  afternoon,  while 
we  may  not  understand  precisely  what  he  means,  we 

81 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

shall  recognize  the  language  in  which  he  speaks.  I  think 
it  was  Paget  who  said,  concerning  the  teaching  of  the 
ancient  languages  in  the  English  public  schools,  that  while 
the  boys  did  not  learn  the  languages,  they  went  out  of  the 
schools  confirmed  in  the  suspicion  that  there  were  such 
languages.  It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  introduce  Governor 
Guild. 

SPEECH  OF  GOVERNOR  GUILD 

Mr.  Toastmaster,  Your  Excellency,  Mr.  President, 
Fellow- Alumni  of  Williams  College:  It  is  a  very  great 
privilege  to  be  permitted  publicly  thus  to  thank  you  and 
to  express  my  high  appreciation  of  the  great  honor  that 
you  have  done  me  in  the  conferring  of  this  honorary  degree, 
and  the  particular  honor  that  I  feel  has  been  done  me  in 
conferring  it  on  this  particular  and  most  felicitous  occasion . 
Certainly, — I  am  going  to  quote  Latin  now, — Williams 
in  her  choice  of  a  president  has  recalled  the  old  Latin  tag, 
if  I  may  change  the  gender  of  the  subject, — "0  pater 
pulcher,  filius  pulchrior."  For  certainly,  if  new  lustre 
could  be  added,  sir,  to  a  name  made  glorious  by  father  and 
by  brother,  it  has  been  added  by  one  who  has  ever  been 
ready  to  leave  the  money-making  part  of  his  profession 
to  devote  his  brain  and  energy  to  the  promotion  of  all 
acts  of  good  citizenship,  and  who  finally  leaves  the  splendid 
prospects  of  his  chosen  profession  that  he  may  serve  the 
scholarship,  not  of  Princeton  merely,  not  of  Williams 
merely,  nor  of  Massachusetts,  nor  of  New  England,  but  of 
the  United  States  of  America. 

Standing  here  for  lack  of  a  better,  as  for  the  moment 
the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts, 
you  would  not  pardon  me,  I  am  sure,  if  I  did  not  express 
to  you  the  pride  that  the  whole  Commonwealth  has  in 
this  splendid  institution  in  its  northwestern  hills, — in 
the  days  of  the  Colony  the  frontier  fort  of  civilization, 
in  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth  the  frontier  fort  still 

82 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

of  civilization, — the  frontier  fort  of  New  England  edu- 
cation. He  was  a  typical  founder  of  American  common- 
wealths and  of  American  colleges,  this  Ephraim  Williams, — 
a  man  of  wide  travel,  unusually  wide  travel  for  his  day, — 
a  man  devoted  to  the  public  will  and  with  little  or  no 
selfish  purpose,  going  forth  to  what  was  the  great  battle 
of  Lake  George,  where  Englishmen  and  Irishmen  and 
Scotchmen  and  Yankees  fought,  sir,  for  the  prevalence 
of  Anglo-Saxon  ideals  on  this  continent,  stopping  there 
at  Albany  and  writing  his  will  leaving  his  property  for 
the  foundation  of  this  institution,  and  then,  with  that 
true  touch  of  self-consciousness  without  which  no  Yankee 
is  supposed  co  live,  penning  the  letter  of  instructions 
in  which  he  says  that  he  really  does  intend  to  leave  his 
property  "for  the  benefit  of  those  unborn,  and  for  the 
sake  of  those  poor  creatures  I  am  mostly  concerned  for 
fear  my  will  should  be  broke!"  He  did  not  say  by  doctors 
of  laws,  sir,  but  I  suppose  there  were  lawyers  of  a  certain 
sort  in  those  days. 

He  died  the  most  glorious  death  that  it  is  given  to  a 
man  to  die.  He  died  in  behalf  of  his  country.  He  died 
the  death  that  Gushing  died  in  his  battery  at  Gettysburg. 
He  died  the  death  that  Gustavus  Adolphus  died  at  Liit- 
zen, — shot  at  the  head  of  his  men  on  the  day  of  his  country's 
victory.  And  the  man  died  in  a  very  splendid  way.  His 
life,  for  its  time,  was  a  splendid  life,  a  successful  life,  a 
respected  life,  a  useful  life;  and  yet  we  have  the  word  of 
the  first  President  of  Williams  College  that  it  was  not 
altogether  a  happy  life.  President  Fitch  says  in  his  memoir, 
you  will  remember,  that  this  soldier-sailor-pioneer  founder 
of  Williams  College,  all  his  life,  was  discontented  because 
of  his  want  of  a  liberal  education. 

As  you  have  heard  from  the  reading  of  the  charter 
this  morning,  this  College  was  founded  not  only  for  the 
promotion  of  virtue  and  morality,  but  particularly  for  the 
study  of  the  "humanities"  and  of  such  arts  as  should 

83 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

produce  good  citizenship.  It  is  not  extraordinary  that 
this  pioneer,  going  to  what  he  thought  might  be  his  death, 
should  have  left  this  fund  to  encourage  an  inspiration  in 
the  generations  that  came  after  him  to  bend  their  energies, 
not  to  what  they  could  get  for  themselves  out  of  the  world, 
but  what  they  could  get  out  of  themselves  to  put  into  the 
world  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 

We  are  accustomed  to  call  upon  universal  education 
as  the  panacea  that  is  to  cure  all  the  evils  that  arise — and 
some  evils  do  arise — from  universal  suffrage;  but  if  edu- 
cation is  not  used  for  the  public  good  by  the  educated, 
it  is  no  more  a  power  than  a  stagnant  pool  is  a  power 
before  it  has  been  fitted  with  a  dam  and  a  mill-race  and 
a  water-wheel.  Educated  men  the  salvation  of  the  re- 
public? The  men  who  exploit  bogus  mining  corporations 
are  not  uneducated;  the  men  who  poison  humanity  with 
quack  medicines  are  not  uneducated;  the  employers  of 
labor  who  refuse  to  allow  their  men  to  enlist  in  the  militia 
and  learn  the  duties  of  citizen-soldiers  are  not  uneducated; 
the  business  men  who  perjure  themselves  and  secure 
further  perjury  from  physicians  to  escape  the  duty  of 
the  jury-box  which  the  Republic  has  the  right  to  demand 
of  every  intelligent  citizen  are  not  uneducated;  the  bank- 
ers, the  business  men,  the  clergymen,  the  college  professors, 
who  take  vacations  in  Europe  during  the  month  of  Nov- 
ember, or  are  too  busy  with  the  ticker  or  the  bridge-table 
or  the  golf  links  to  get  out  and  vote  on  election  day,  on  one 
side  or  the  other  as  their  consciences  tell  them, — these  men 
are  not  uneducated  men.  If  education  is  to  be  of  value,  it 
must  be  because  the  individual  learns  that  education  is 
a  responsibility  as  well  as  a  privilege,  and  that  as  in  the 
old  days  men  said,  ''Noblesse  oblige,"  in  a  republic  it  must 
be  Sagesse  oblige,  and  the  educated  man  must  be  a  leader 
in  any  decent  American  citizenship. 

In  the  headlong  rush  of  competition  we  are  apt  to 
think  nowadays  too  much  of  the  so-called  practical  edu- 

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INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

cation.  The  old  classical  education  was  weak  in  that  the 
young  man  could  not  go  out  from  the  academy  or  college 
properly  equipped  for  the  immediate  earning  of  his  living, 
and  it  is  true  that,  in  order  to  make  the  largest  possible 
number  of  power-looms  or  storage-batteries  in  the  shortest 
number  of  hours,  a  man  will  not  be  much  helped  by  the 
study  of  Bancroft  or  Von  Ranke,  or  the  memorizing  of 
passages  from  Chaucer  or  Dante,  or  the  consideration 
of  Marcus  Aurelius  or  Locke.  But  if  our  education  is  to 
be  complete,  if  it  is,  as  you  have  so  wisely  said,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, the  duty  of  a  college  to  fit  men  for  citizenship,  if  it 
is  in  time  of  war  wise  that  the  private  soldier  should  be  a 
"thinking  bayonet," — something  more  than  a  cog  in  a 
fighting  machine, — so  it  is  well,  in  time  of  peace,  that  the 
citizen  should  be  something  more  than  a  cog  in  a  mere 
industrial  machine.  We  do  need  technical  schools,  we 
need  more  of  them,  for  upon  the  possession  of  skilled 
artisans  and  skilled  professional  men  depends  the  prosperity 
of  any  country.  But  the  existence  of  a  nation  does  not  de- 
pend upon  these,  but  upon  the  men  whose  instinct  and 
education  make  them  not  merely  capable  of  earning  a 
good  living,  but,  as  the  late  Governor  Russell  used  to  put 
it,  of  leading  a  good  life.  The  existence  of  a  nation  de- 
pends, not  upon  the  man  who  is  a  skilled  artisan,  but  upon 
the  man  who  is  a  skilled  citizen,  a  good  neighbor,  and  a 
good  friend.  It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  a  man  may  be 
all  these  without  the  study  of  the  liberal  arts.  A  man  may 
be  pure,  high-minded,  active  in  public  life,  who  knows 
nothing  of  anything  in  connection  with  the  drama  except 
such  frank  vulgarity  as  that  of  such  men  as  Zola,  or  "  Tess 
of  the  D'Urbervilles,"  or  the  revival  of  the  degenerate 
dances  of  the  worship  of  the  Phoenician  "Aphrodite";  but 
but  he  will  certainly  have  a  better  notion  of  public  life 
and  of  private  life  if  he  is  enjoying  the  clean  wit  of  Oliver 
Goldsmith  and  the  condemnation  and  dissection  of  the 
coxcomb  in  "  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,"  if  he  has  learned  to 

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WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

despise  hypocrisy  and  meanness  and  pedantry  with  Moliere, 
and  if,  finally,  he  has  read  and  learned  and  let  sink  into  his 
soul  that  splendid  soliloquy  on  responsibility  in  public 
office  which  Shakespeare  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Henry 
the  Fifth  before  the  battle  of  Agincourt.  A  man  may  be 
a  true  type  of  gentleman  who  has  never  read  any  other 
instructions  than  those  of  Mr.  Charles  Schwab,  advising 
young  men  to  get  out  of  school  as  quickly  as  possible  and 
get  into  a  remunerative  occupation  and  stick  to  it  until 
they  have  accumulated  their  "pile";  but  oh,  I  think  that 
we  shall  agree  that  he  is  much  more  likely  to  become  what 
we  may  call  a  gentleman, — and  that  is  a  title  of  honor 
which  belongs  to  no  one  particular  nation, — if  he  has  man- 
aged to  make  himself  familiar  with  that  beautiful  picture 
which  Thackeray  draws  of  the  life  and  death  of  Colonel 
Newcome.  He  may  be  able  to  resist  what  may  seem  to 
him  the  new  and  pleasing  doctrines  of  Anarchy  and  Social- 
ism, although  he  may  think  that  they  are  objectionable 
without  any  study  of  literature  beyond  the  Sunday  supple- 
ments of  the  "  yellow"  newspapers;  but  he  will  find  it  much 
easier  to  resist  them  if  he  has  read  the  story  of  the  Leather- 
Dresser  of  Athens,  and  Jack  Cade,  and  John  of  Leyden,  and 
the  experience  of  our  own  Plymouth  settlers  at  first  when 
they  tried  to  hold  all  property  in  common,  and  the  utter 
failure  of  the  French  Nation  in  the  Revolution  to 
maintain  the  maximum  or  any  regulated  price  of  any 
general  commodity.  He  may  feel  a  despair  of  the  success 
of  some  good  cause  when  he  hears  how  few  men  gather 
to  support  it,  and  he  may  retire  and  think  it  is  a  failure, 
if  he  has  not  been  versed  in  history.  But  oh,  how  much 
easier  it  is  for  a  man  to  get  hope  out  of  any  failure,  thinking 
that  ultimately  there  must  come  success,  if  he  has  read 
the  story  of  the  charge  of  the  Ten  Thousand  at  Marathon ; 
if  he  has  read  how  the  patchwork  army  of  Leonidas  at  the 
Pass  of  Thermopylae  held  back  the  greatest  conqueror  of 
his  age,  the  scourge  of  Persia,  at  the  head  of  Asia's  victori- 

86 


INDUCTION  OF  PRESIDENT  GARFIELD 

ous  army;  if  he  has  read  the  story  of  Charles  Martel  of 
Tours,  and  how  the  conquering  horde  of  Saracens  was 
seized  with  a  strange  fear  and  fell  backward,  south  from 
Europe;  if  he  has  read  the  story  of  the  great  storm  that 
engulfed  the  Spanish  Armada  and  settled  that  the  domi- 
nant policies,  not  only  of  Europe  but  of  America,  were  to 
be  those  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  not  the  imperial  policies 
of  Spain.  A  man  who  has  read  the  story  of  history  cannot 
be  an  atheist  and  keep  his  eyes  open.  He  must  appreci- 
ate that  there  never  was  a  more  awful  blasphemy  uttered 
than  those  words  of  Napoleon,  "  Providence  is  always  on 
the  side  of  the  strongest  artillery."  Providence  is  not  on 
the  side  of  the  strongest  artillery,  and  there  is  no  more 
certain  truth  in  this  world  than  that  the  man  or  the  cause 
is  sure  to  succeed,  if  the  cause  or  the  man  is  for  the  general 
uplift  of  humanity. 

But  I  fear  I  have  spoken  to  you  too  long, — I  have 
spoken  longer  than  I  had  intended, — and  possibly  I  have 
touched  upon  subjects  which  may  make  you  think  that  I 
am  a  candidate  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  rather 
than  Doctor  of  Laws;  but  I  thank  you  for  your  indulgence. 

And  now,  as  we  depart,  morituri  te  salutant — those 
who  are  about  to  die  salute  thee!  And  as  we  pass  back 
again  to  the  struggle  in  the  arena  of  life,  as  gladiators 
in  the  arena  waved  net  and  trident  and  sword  and  shield 
to  the  imperial  purple  of  a  Caesar,  so  do  we,  going  back  to 
the  battle  of  life,  wave  our  last  salute  to  the  Royal  Purple 
of  Williams.  The  Purple — may  we  be  mindful  of  its  sig- 
nificance! Let  those  of  us,  sir,  who  wear  it  by  right  of 
inheritance  and  those  of  us  who  wear  it  by  right  of  adop- 
tion learn  the  lesson  of  the  color.  Crimson  may  be  the 
badge  of  courage;  blue,  of  sublime  hope  and  aspiration; 
green,  of  vigorous  and  everlasting  life;  but  purple,  sir, 
is  the  color  of  fruition,  of  success,  of  achievement, — the 
color  not  of  dreamers  of  dreams,  but  of  doers  of  deeds. 
You  have  adopted  as  the  color  of  this  College  the  color 

87 


WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

consecrated  to  kings.  The  very  word  "king" — in  the  old 
Anglo-Saxon  "cyng" — means,  and  even  more  surely 
meant  in  the  old  days  in  the  dark  marshes  and  forests 
of  Northern  Europe  when  our  Saxon  forefathers  met  in 
their  turbulent  meetings — the  forerunners  of  our  New 
England  town-meetings — and  chose  their  king,  one  whose 
life  is  consecrated,  not  to  himself,  but  to  his  entire  tribe. 
May  we  learn  the  lesson  of  the  Purple — the  color  of  achieve- 
ment, the  color  of  those  who  do  deeds,  not  for  them- 
selves, but  for  all  the  people  among  whom  they  live  and 
whom  they  love! 

And  when  the  call  comes  to  us,  as  it  came  to  the  founder 
of  this  college,  whether  it  be  in  the  blazing  sunshine  to 
make  our  sacrifice  and  go  forth  to  death,  if  need  be,  but 
to  a  glorious  death,  or  whether  it  be  alone  and  in  the 
darkness,  as  it  came  to  the  Hebrew  prophet,  to  go  forth 
to  a  bitter  and  inglorious  duty, — whether  the  call  comes 
in  light  or  in  darkness,  in  health  or  in  suffering,  may  we, 
the  wearers  of  the  Purple,  mindful  of  its  message,  answer 
as  the  Hebrew  prophet  answered,  "Here  am  I;  send  me." 

MR.  MABIE: 

Now  that  the  nation's  needs  have  been  properly  and 
officially  recognized,  and  that  the  usual  tribute  to  woman 
has  been  paid,  I  declare  Harry  Augustus  Garfield  duly 
inaugurated  President  of  Williams  College. 

Immediately  after  the  luncheon  a  large  number  of 
delegates,  guests,  and  Alumni  of  the  College  attended 
a  reception  given  by  the  President  and  Mrs.  Garfield  at 
the  President's  house. 


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